


Love Don't Die Easy

by Anath_Tsurugi



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Brainwashing, Gen, Mentions of Suicidal Thoughts, Mind Rape, Multi, Reactions to trauma, Tadashi lives!, Torture, Yokai!Tadashi, burn scars, car crash, hallucination
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-01 00:53:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 46,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2753516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anath_Tsurugi/pseuds/Anath_Tsurugi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tadashi survives the fire...but only because Callaghan meant for him to. What will become of Hiro when Yokai is unmasked?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Arrow Through the Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LokiOdinsonlover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LokiOdinsonlover/gifts).



> Well, I've seen plenty of 'Tadashi's alive' stories, but nothing's quite hit all the selling points for me, so I thought I'd try my own hand at it. This particular idea germinated from a scene LokiOdinsonlover wrote for our two favorite brothers and had an interest in the scene being expanded on. So this one's for you, LokiOdinsonlover. Let's go for a drive and see where we end up.

Tadashi had to forcibly shut out Hiro's desperate cries as he raced into the burning building. It wasn't long before the sounds of the roaring fire and the crumbling structure drowned it out, though. There wasn't much time. The center had just about had it. He had to find Callaghan _now!_

"Callaghan!" he shouted as he ran through the fire, the acrid scent of smoke overwhelming his senses. "Where are you? _Answer me!_ "

"Tadashi," a calm voice answered his cries. The young man spun around to see a figure cloaked in some sort of black wave.

"Hiro's...microbots?" he murmured in quiet confusion, slowly recognizing the individual shape and motion of the tiny bots.

"I knew you'd come," the figure said in the same unnervingly calm voice. The wave of microbots slowly rolled back to reveal the person underneath.

"Callaghan?" he called out uncertainly, frightened by the look in his professor's eyes. "What- what are you doing? We need to get out of here."

"Oh, we will, Tadashi. You see...this will be the tragedy that liberates you and I."

"Professor...I don't understand what you're talking about. This place is about to go," he explained, as if the man couldn't already see this. Every instinct told him to step back from this man...to run as fast as he could, scoop up Hiro, and get as far from Robert Callaghan as humanly possible...but those instincts also clashed with his own nature. Someone needed help. He had to save him...even if it was from himself.

"Trust me, Tadashi, I know exactly how much time we have left. I set this explosion myself."

"You...you _what?_ " Tadashi demanded in shock. "People could have _died,_ Callaghan! Have you lost your mind?" He couldn't believe it. His mentor, the man he looked up to...trusted...had deliberately endangered hundreds of innocent lives? This couldn't be real.

"No one's in any danger, I promise you. They've all evacuated. It's just you and me now. Come on. Join me," he said, holding a hand out to him.

Tadashi took a step back, eyeing the hand with apprehension. "If you planned this...how did you know I'd even _be_ here?"

"I knew you'd be here because I know _you,_ Tadashi Hamada. All it took was one word from that girl. The moment you heard your _mentor_ was in danger, you came running. I knew you'd come to _rescue_ me. That's exactly the kind of conviction I need."

Tadashi shook his head, taking several more steps back, _further_ into the burning building. "What are you saying? This isn't right!"

"We don't have much time, Tadashi. You need to understand...this is all for a higher purpose. If you want to know the truth, you need to come with me _now!_ " Callaghan insisted as he followed the young man's retreat, still holding his hand out.

"No way," Tadashi said, shaking his head again. If this man he'd thought was his friend thought it justified to risk human life this way, he wanted no part of this. "I'm getting out. Hiro's waiting for me."

Tadashi started to run, moving to make a wide arc around the professor and the writhing mass of microbots, but as he hurried past, he heard the man calling out to him.

"Oh, Tadashi...that really was the _wrong answer._ "

At that, Tadashi suddenly felt something wrap around his ankles. Almost before he was aware of it, he was yanked off his feet and dragged across the floor. Still disoriented, he found himself pulled upright, face to face with Callaghan.

"Let me go!" he shouted, struggling futilely against the microbots. "If you don't let me go right now, I'll-"

"You'll _what?_ " Callaghan spat in his face. "You don't have the stomach for that sort of thing, Tadashi, but we can easily do something about that. I'm sorry to do this to you, but I need your help. It's time for us to disappear."

Tadashi fought, but it was in vain. When he finally had to admit he was helpless, he did the only thing he could do. He called out for help...to the only person who might hear him.

" _Hiro!_ "

He would never know if his little brother heard him or not. Several things happened all at once. There was a giant explosion of light and heat all around them and Tadashi screamed in agony as he felt the flames searing through his clothing and his skin, straight down to the bone. The pain didn't last long, though, because something heavy impacted with the side of his head and everything faded to blessed darkness...but as the world slipped away around him, he could have almost sworn he heard a voice.

" _Tadashi!_ "

_Hiro...Hiro...I'm sorry._

XxX

_For a long while, all he knows is darkness and silence. That harrowing blackness is broken only occasionally by visions of fire. Flames lick at his hands and feet...all the way up...slowly consuming him. He screams, but there's no sound._

_"Tadashi!"_

_**Who...?** _

_"Tadashi! Tadashi, help me!"_

_**Hiro...Hiro needs me! Have to...help...** _

_"Nii-chan...please...I'm scared."_

_**I'm coming, Hiro! Hold on!** _

_But then he hears Hiro screaming...and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot reach him. He's trapped...burning and dying...while his baby brother screams in agony._

"HIRO!"

_Only when he's sure he'll go crazy with the sound piercing his heart does the blackness overtake him once again, leaving him frozen and nonexistent._

_**Hiro...** _

"Tadashi?"

"No...no more..." _he whispers, his throat dry and scratchy...as if from disuse...or from screaming._

"I know you can hear me, Tadashi."

"Leave me alone," _he pleads. He can't take it anymore. He can't burn again. He can't listen to Hiro die again._

"I know you're with me, Tadashi Hamada, so you may as well wake up and listen."

"I-" Tadashi tried one more time before his eyes finally blinked open. He didn't yet know it, but he'd exchanged one hell for another.

The first thing he became aware of was the fact that he was sitting in a darkened room. He couldn't see much of anything beyond the single spotlight that shone down on him, but he did soon become aware that he was sitting in a chair. Well...not sitting. He was actually _tied_ to the chair pretty thoroughly. He could feel the lengths of rope digging into his wrists, arms, and chest, as well as his ankles. When he looked down, he found he was clothed in nothing but a pair of black pants.

"Where...where am I?" he finally made himself ask, still not fully able to focus. "What's happening?" The last thing he remembered was...congratulating Hiro on his presentation.

"I'm sorry about all this, Tadashi, but you've been heavily sedated for the better part of two weeks. I couldn't risk your reaction to the situation," the familiar voice said as its owner stepped into his view.

"Professor Callaghan?" he mumbled in confusion. "I...what's going on? Why am I tied up? Where are we? Where...where's Hiro?"

"You don't...remember anything?" Callaghan asked slowly, glancing sideways at him...and as Tadashi looked at the now strange, steely expression on his mentor's face, it all started to come back to him in fragmented bits and pieces.

_Fire...explosions...the microbots...Callaghan..._ _**pain...** _

_"I knew you'd come."_

_"What are you saying? This isn't right!"_

_"Oh, Tadashi...that really was the_ _**wrong answer.** _ _"_

_"_ _**Hiro!** _ _"_

_"_ _**Tadashi!** _ _"_

"The fire," he whispered as it all came rushing back with painful clarity. "What...what happened? Hiro! Is he all right?" he demanded.

"As all right as can be expected...seeing as how he's been mourning your _death_ for two weeks," the professor said harshly.

"Oh, God," Tadashi whispered in horror. He remembered the pain of losing his parents. He could barely imagine the pain of losing his little brother. What Hiro must have been suffering these last two weeks...

At the thought of his brother in pain, rage flared up in Tadashi's heart and he turned sickened, angry eyes up to the man who had been his mentor, demanding, " _Why,_ Callaghan? Why would you _do_ this? The fire...the microbots... _Hiro_...why?"

Callaghan sighed heavily as he began to pace. "Tadashi...you are, inarguably, my best student. I've always thought that you and I understand each other better than any of the others do. If anyone would understand my situation, I felt certain it would be you."

"What situation?"

"For all I know about your personal life, I don't believe I've told you very much about mine. Did you know I had a daughter?"

"Had?" Tadashi asked, latching onto the word with a touch of foreboding in his heart.

"Abigail was very brave and very smart. She worked as a test pilot for Krei Tech several years ago. They'd come out with a sort of teleportation technology...but when they were demonstrating it for their investors, something went wrong. The technology wasn't ready. The test pilot...Abigail...she was lost," Callaghan explained as he turned away from Tadashi.

"I'm so sorry," Tadashi said after several moments of pained silence. "I understand what you're going through."

"Yes," Callaghan interrupted before he could say any more, though he still didn't look at him. "I thought if anyone would, it would be you. And if your parents had been _murdered_...surely you would want to do everything in your power to see that the murderer was brought to justice."

"What do you mean murdered?" Tadashi asked, feeling a chill steal across his heart. "Abigail wasn't murdered. It was an accident."

"Krei _knew_ his technology wasn't ready!" Callaghan snarled as he turned to face him. "He _knew_...and he let her go anyway. It's his fault she's dead! _His fault!_ " the professor screamed, his eyes wild with rage. "He killed her and they didn't punish him! What did the government do? They covered the whole thing up! They buried it deep and they let that monster off with a slap on the wrist. And me...what was I left with? No body to bury, a letter of condolence, and her last paycheck. That's all my precious girl was to them! A few god damn _pieces of paper!_ If they have their way, Krei will never see the inside of a jail cell...or a hangman's noose."

"What...what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I mean to make him _pay,_ Tadashi...and I need your help to do it," he said, leering maniacally as he knelt in front of the elder Hamada.

" _What?_ "

"I'm an old man, Tadashi...much too old to be carrying out this revenge. I can control Hiro's microbots, certainly, but I just can't take the risk that I might not have the strength to finish this. If I die before this is over, it will mean Krei goes unpunished and Abigail died for nothing. I need a young pair of legs and a strong back to help me finish this task. I thought if anyone would understand my situation...would sympathize and be willing to help me punish a murderer...it would be _you_...Tadashi Hamada. Please...will you help me?"

For a long while, Tadashi just stared at his former professor in horror. He could feel pity for the man and sympathize with what he'd been through, certainly, but _this_...Robert Callaghan was asking him to help him commit _murder._ He was asking him to turn his back on everything he believed in for the sake of some crazy revenge scheme. Slowly, he shook his head.

"Callaghan...I _can't._ _You_ can't. What happened was awful, but Krei doesn't deserve to _die_ for it. My whole purpose in life is to help people. I can't kill another human being. I'm sorry. I just _can't do that!_ "

Callaghan's expression twisted at this, his eyes growing dark and harsh as he got to his feet. "We'll see about that. What would you do if it was your own brother?"

Tadashi felt fear grip his chest at the insinuation. "W- what are you talking about?"

"Think about it. Krei propositioned Hiro the night of the explosion. What if he'd taken Krei up on his offer? What if he'd given away the microbots and allowed that man to twist them into something they weren't...something that would have _destroyed_ your brother. What would you do then?"

"No. I don't believe you. Hiro's too smart for that," he said, the words a low growl in his throat. If this man even _hinted_ at threatening Hiro...

"It still might happen. What sort of decisions might young Hiro make...lost and alone without his _nii-chan?_ " Callaghan mocked. "What will you do when that man tries to tell you he's sorry over your brother's _dead body?_ "

" _Shut up!_ " Tadashi screamed at him, trying to lunge forward, but held back by the ropes. "If any of you hurt so much as _one hair_ on his head, I'll tear you all to pieces!"

At this, Callaghan began to sneer. "That's what I thought. You play at being a saint, Tadashi, but underneath that, there are untapped reservoirs of _rage._ We just need the right pressure point to break the dam."

"No," Tadashi hissed as he turned away from his former mentor in shock, eyes squeezing tightly shut. "That's not me. It's _not._ "

"You should stop lying to yourself, Hamada. You see...the thing about people who claim to want to help everyone...that's only true because only they know how to cause _real pain._ They're desperate to try and fix the world because only _they_ know how truly depraved it can be. That's what you _really_ are, Tadashi. It will be less painful for you if you embrace it," he said, taking hold of Tadashi's hair and forcing his head back.

"Stop it. _Stop it,_ " the young man hissed, still not looking at Callaghan. He would never admit it, but the professor's words called up things he'd managed to forget...playground days...beating up kids who'd bullied his baby brother...and that tiny spark of _glee_ he'd felt at causing them pain.

"What would dear Hiro think if he could see what lies just beneath this skin?" he taunted, running a thumb along Tadashi's cheek. "What if he could really see the monster you keep hidden? Would your brother still love you?"

"Please... _stop,_ " Tadashi begged, feeling tears he refused to shed burn at his eyelids. "I can't...I _can't._ "

"Just what do you think you can do if you won't help me? You can't go back to your family. You're _dead_ to them. They've _buried_ you. What would you do? Where would you go? In a world without your family, what _are_ you? Even if you _could_ go back, you can _never_ erase the _pain_ you've caused them. In fact, why don't we have a look at just what sorts of nightmares little Hiro's been dealing with," Callaghan said, slipping a controller from his pocket and pointing at the darkness beyond them. A screen immediately flared to life, playing some sort of video feed. Tadashi nearly threw up what little was in his stomach when he realized that the feed was of his and Hiro's bedroom.

He couldn't ask how Callaghan had gotten a camera in there. He couldn't focus on things like that right now. All he could see was the tiny, nearly unrecognizable figure lying on Hiro's bed, burrowed under a mountain of blankets.

Hiro wasn't even trying to hold back his tears. Great, heaving sobs wracked his small body, wringing out every last drop of grief he had to give before finding even more to drain away from him. He sobbed as if his heart had shattered, because it had. He wasn't very tall to begin with, but now he just looked impossibly small, lying helpless and grief-stricken on the bed.

"Tadashi...damn it... _Tadashi!_ " he sobbed in anguish, beating at his pillow. "It's not fair! _Nii-chan!_ " he cried out before burying his face in the pillow and screaming.

Tadashi was too stricken to even plead with Callaghan to stop. He was so horrified by his baby brother's agony, all he could do was sit there and stare as tears poured silently down his own face.

_You did this to him. This is your fault._

Before Tadashi had even a prayer of pulling himself together, the feed changed. It showed a different night. Hiro was lying with his head at the foot of his bed, eyes red and puffy from crying. He was wearing one of Tadashi's jackets wrapped tightly around him while he kept his nose buried in one of the sleeves, laughing bitterly as several more tears slid down his face.

"Damn it, man...you have a scent. Did you know that? I didn't...and in a few weeks, it's gonna be gone...just like you. Tadashi...how many more times can I lose you, _damn it?_ "

"Hiro..." Tadashi whispered, feeling his throat constrict around the word. He swallowed painfully as more tears squeezed their way out of his eyes. He wasn't sure how much of this he could take.

_I'm sorry, Hiro. I'm so sorry._

A different night now. Hiro was sitting at his desk, staring blankly at his computer.

"Why the hell did I let you go in there? It should have been _me!_ The microbots...maybe I could have actually _done_ something."

_Hiro...please. Don't do this to yourself!_

"Tadashi...I don't know if you can hear me...but I don't know if I can do this," Hiro said softly. Then he picked up a knife he had lying on the desk - a paring knife he'd probably taken from the cafe. Slowly he began to trace his wrist with the blade's sharp edge, not drawing blood...just lingering on the surface...on the edge...

"Hiro, don't!" Tadashi couldn't stop himself from crying out, trying to reach for his brother, but unable to. "I'm here! I'm _right here!_ You don't have to do this! _Hiro!_ "

Then, almost as if he'd heard him...as if he'd suddenly realized what he was doing...Hiro shoved the knife away, out of his reach. Then he buried his face in his hands and started to cry again.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Hiro sobbed, and Tadashi had no idea if he meant he was sorry for considering suicide...or if he was sorry for not being able to go through with it. Either way, it tore him in two. "Damn it. _Why aren't you here?_ "

"I _am_ here," he whispered to the screen as the tears continued to fall. "I'm here for you. I'm not dead. I'm sorry. _Please..._ don't cry."

With this, the screen finally went dark and Tadashi slumped in the chair, barely feeling the harsh pull of the rope against his skin. He didn't even look up when Callaghan began to speak again.

"I have all the nights since the fire...and I don't doubt there will be more. He's doing no better. You'll see every moment of the pain you've caused him," he said, slowly lifting Tadashi's face up by the chin so he could look him in the eye.

"Please...you don't have to do this," Tadashi repeated desperately. He knew he couldn't bear this. It would break him.

"No. I'm afraid I do. You've proven you're in need of...reeducation. I'm sorry this is necessary, but I can't let anything stand in my way. I promise you, Tadashi, you'd do the same if it was Hiro."

Tadashi wanted to deny him, to tell him he was wrong about him...but he was no longer so certain. He couldn't be sure of what was inside him. Was there a monster...just like Callaghan...just waiting for the right trigger to be set free? He didn't know...and he was terrified to find out.

"You don't feel it yet, of course, but your back was badly burned in the escape. You've got some very nasty scar tissue back there. The pain killers will start to wear off before too long, though. You'll start to feel it. Be thankful I kept you unconscious for the worst part of that, because we've only just begun. Reeducation also requires...reconstruction," Callaghan explained, holding up a hand. Tadashi cringed when he saw what was lying in it.

A microbot.

"I can be very inventive, Tadashi. You saw what I could do with only a moment of practice. Imagine what I could do to your body. Imagine what it will do to Hiro...to know I used his own invention to _break you,_ " he said, running the bot down the side of the young man's face...and it was in that moment that Tadashi Hamada knew he was already lost. He would do his best to fight back, but Callaghan had already won. He couldn't fight this.

He'd survived the explosion that should have killed him, but that made little difference. Tadashi knew he was dead already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...any interest in seeing what happens next?


	2. The Heart Keeps on Beating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your positive responses to the story. Let's hope I can continue to please you (or, y'know, rip your hearts out with agony whilst making you enjoy every minute of it...my God, what's wrong with us?).

He was torn apart and put back together a hundred times over. Pieces of him he hadn't known existed were destroyed, replaced with things that just couldn't be imagined. The physical torture he might have been able to withstand, but all that while, Callaghan played with his mind...showing him how much Hiro was suffering without him.

"I have a surprise for you today, Tadashi," Callaghan told him when he came to after a particularly violent session. "You've been such a good patient these last few days, taking your medicine, I thought you deserved a little treat."

With that, the door to the former professor's workroom slid open, revealing both the only and last thing in the world Tadashi wanted to see.

Hiro was standing in the doorway, his small form framed by the light from the hallway. A look of horror twisted his features when he saw Tadashi.

"No," Tadashi whispered in anguish, struggling against the ropes that held him, despite the pain in his body. "Hiro...run... _get out!_ "

"T...Tadashi?" Hiro called out in shock as he moved further into the room. "What happened to you?"

"Hiro, please...run. Just run," Tadashi begged him. "He'll kill you. _He'll kill you!_ "

Hiro reached out a hand, as if to touch his face. "There's no way I'm just gonna leave you here, Tadashi. I didn't-" He was cut off when he was stabbed from behind, a katana blade piercing through his chest.

" _NOO!_ " Tadashi screamed, fighting all the harder against his bonds, but still unable to reach Hiro...unable to save him.

"I...I...Ta..." Hiro gasped several times as blood gathered at his lips...but then those lips twisted into a cruel smile and the image of Hiro's face flickered and twisted away like smoke. What was left was a vaguely human-shaped mass of microbots, which dissolved into a mass of twisted metal on the floor as Callaghan passed through it. It wasn't alive. It never had been.

"What did you think of the holographic technology? Very convincing, yes?" Callaghan asked him, the same cruel smile twisting his lips.

"You're _sick!_ " Tadashi snarled, turning away from him, but Callaghan turned his face right back to his.

"How does it feel? Watching him die? Knowing you can't do anything to stop it? That you _can't save him?_ " Callaghan taunted him. "Not good, perhaps?"

Tadashi did nothing but stare back at him in morose silence. Begging and pleading did no good. Callaghan didn't have even an ounce of mercy left in him. He'd learned that the hard way.

"Think about it this way. When we're done here, you really _will_ be able to protect him. You'll be strong enough to protect everyone...just like you've always wanted."

"If you really believe _this_ is the way to help people...you're even more fucked up than I realized."

"You're probably right...but that doesn't make _me_ any less right. I regret you'll end up losing yourself along the way, but I'll say to the Tadashi that still exists...you'll be grateful for what you're able to accomplish," he promised him before sinking a hypodermic needle into his neck, emptying its contents into his system.

The regimen of drugs only grew worse after that day. From then on, Tadashi was never wholly able to distinguish reality from illusion again.

XxX

Callaghan knew Tadashi would never believe it, but what he was doing was for the boy's own good. Despite the fury he knew was hiding just beneath the surface, Callaghan knew Tadashi would have trouble consciously causing harm. By doing it this way, breaking him down and destroying his spirit, he would be able to protect his heart from what they would have to do. He would never be forgiven for any of this, but he couldn't let himself care about that anymore. Only one thing still mattered. Tadashi Hamada was...inconsequential.

The former professor was using a combination of drugs, holographic technology, and the microbots to shape his protege's reality. He was currently watching Tadashi work his way through an obstacle course. If he completed the course quickly enough, the reward was a night free of having to watch the microbot copy of his brother die again...or of rewatching the footage of Hiro screaming at the burnt out wreckage of the exposition center. The young man was willing to do almost anything to not have to experience those things, even for a minute.

Really, it was amazing to see how greatly his martial arts skills had improved when fueled by that desperation. Callaghan had been truly awed when he'd placed a katana in the boy's hands. It would be very interesting to see the results of his experiments when Tadashi finally came up against a human target. He wasn't ready for that just yet, though. There was still work that needed to be done.

Tadashi wasn't aware of it, but he'd been through many hypnosis sessions with Callaghan. He'd been spying on the Hamada brothers for nearly two years now, but there was still information he didn't have. The sessions were his attempts to glean every last possible piece of information he could from the boy's head. There was no telling what knowledge he might need once the current operating system had been erased. He was backing up the hard drive, as it were. At the core, human beings weren't really all that different from robots. The human brain could be programmed just like any other machine. It was just a matter of knowing the proper codes. With Tadashi, it was his love for his precious baby brother. Manipulate that and Tadashi Hamada would become the perfect weapon. It was also the last hurdle his former student had yet to cross.

On the day Tadashi finally crossed that line, he would be ready.

XxX

Tadashi had never been much of a fan of black clothing, but as Callaghan had told him, it kept him concealed in the darkness. There was no way to tell what sort of obstacle the man would have him facing tonight, but if the sensors detected him too soon, he would fail the challenge. Failure meant punishment. Punishment was unbearable.

Callaghan's maze-like obstacle course somewhat resembled the seedier streets of San Fransokyo. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this was partly due to holographic technology, but he couldn't always remember that. Sometimes he felt certain he was really out on the streets, stalking the night, waiting for orders on his task. Sometimes he felt this was what his life had always been...always waiting for orders from Callaghan...always struggling to escape punishment. Perhaps it would always be like this...always dancing just around the perimeter of pain and heartbreak.

"Continue sweeping," Callaghan's voice sounded through his earpiece.

"Am I going to be receiving a target anytime soon?" Tadashi asked as he glanced surreptitiously around the next corner, hand held lightly on the hilt of his katana.

"Believe me, Tadashi, you will know your target when you see him. Be patient."

Tadashi couldn't say how long after the exchange it happened, but when it did, he was ready.

"Police!" a voice behind him shouted. "Drop your weapons!"

Tadashi turned on the spot, drawing his katana in the same motion. There were three of them. The first he decapitated and the other two he gutted, all without hesitation. Even the slightest hesitation meant punishment.

_No hesitation. No mercy. Kill anyone who stands in your way._

He could hear them screaming as he killed them...see their blood splash onto his gloved hands. The sharp coppery tang of it filled his nose and mouth. Sometimes he knew the system wasn't that good...that he was just insane...but he didn't know that right now. It didn't take long for the targets to dissolve into waves of microbots, but before they did, he was rewarded with distinct visions of his first victim's severed head and his second victim's spilled intestines.

"No mercy. Good," Callaghan praised. "Continue."

With that, Tadashi found himself surrounded on all sides by adversaries, both police and criminals.

_It doesn't matter. None of it does. Eliminate them!_

Immediately, he sank into battle trance, attacking and killing without thought or conscience. Gut one, decapitate another, sever a spine, slice a throat, a shuriken through an eye - there were so many ways to die...so many ways to end life. The human body was frail and pathetic. It took little more than the speed of a thought to cut skin.

_Weak. Weak! All of them weak! Cattle for the slaughter. Kill them! Cut them down!_ _**Destroy!** _

He didn't stop until the street was deserted...until the pavement was painted red with blood. Then he heard another voice from behind him...a voice full of horror and pain.

"Tadashi...what have you _done?_ "

Tadashi turned slowly at the sound of the familiar voice. Hiro stood before him, trembling...shocked and afraid.

"Hiro..." he whispered, feeling his own shoulders begin to tremble as his mind rapidly shifted between two possible realities. Real. Not real. Real. Not real. Real. Not real. .RealNotreal _RealNotrealREALNOTREAL!_

"Kill him," Callaghan urged quietly in his ear.

"Tadashi, why?"

"Don't look at me like that," he hissed at his brother, frightened and angered by the hate he saw blooming in his eyes.

"Tadashi, he is your target. Kill him _now!_ "

"All that talk about helping people...making the world a better place...was it all a lie?"

" _I SAID DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!_ " Tadashi screamed, raising his katana to strike. He couldn't take this. He couldn't bear to have the little brother who had looked up at him with trust and love look at him with such revulsion in his eyes.

" _Kill him!_ "

"Do you even really love me? Was that a lie, too? You're a _monster,_ Tadashi!" Hiro shouted at him.

Tadashi screamed as he launched himself at Hiro, a wordless sound of anguish and despair that echoed throughout the streets. When he plunged the blade into his brother's beating heart, he had no idea whether the feeling in his chest was joy or shock.

Hiro gasped several times as Tadashi thrust the blade in deeper, already choking on his own blood. Tadashi pulled his little brother closer, smiling in an unhinged way as he whispered in his ear, "You aren't _real._ "

But even as he spoke the words, he realized...the image wasn't dissolving into a mass of microbots. It remained solid in his arms. He wasn't feeling cold metal through the static tingle of a hologram. He was feeling cooling flesh against his own...the weight of a human body in his arms. As he slowly sank to his knees, he gazed into brown eyes, empty and sightless as they stared up at nothing...and when he finally understood, something inside of him _broke._

Tadashi Hamada had just murdered his little brother.

When the young man turned his pain-filled face to heaven, he gave a scream of such utter hopelessness it raised the hairs even on the back of Callaghan's neck as he approached him. Even though he knew he had him now, knew this was the critical moment, that didn't mean he didn't feel a touch of fear of the creature he'd created. This boy was unstable at best...and completely insane at worst.

When Tadashi felt the man's hand on his shoulder, he felt all of his strength drain out of him. He couldn't even summon up the energy to pull the blade from Hiro's chest to take a stab at the beast who'd caused all this. He just knelt there on the cold, hard street, cradling Hiro's body against him as the pavement slowly grew warm and sticky with his blood.

"Why?" was the only word he could summon up from the void of his shattered soul.

"Tadashi...sometimes, for the greater good...sacrifices have to be made," Callaghan explained as he gripped his shoulder tighter, a look of pain flashing in his eyes.

"Sacrifices?" he repeated, tracing a hand over Hiro's face, gently closing his eyes.

"Yes. Hiro was sacrificed so that _you_ might be set free. This is the moment for you, Tadashi. Cast away your humanity and embrace your freedom. That's what it will take in order to be strong enough to achieve your goal. Do you want to save people...or don't you?"

For several moments, Tadashi just knelt there, thinking about Callaghan's words as he stroked his brother's unruly hair, absently brushing it out of his face. Hiro was so pale. He found he didn't care about strength at all as he cradled his baby brother in his arms. All he wanted was for this pain to stop.

"If...if I do this...if I go with you...will this pain end? Will I be free from that?"

"Yes," Callaghan promised, moving his hand from the young man's shoulder and extending it down to him. "You're an accomplice now. Decide. Are you ready to take your freedom?"

It might have been an eternity or only a moment Tadashi stared brokenly at the hand offered to him, but ultimately he nodded, taking his mentor's hand.

"Yes."

"Good," Callaghan said. "You will be the hand that carries out my vengeance...my Yokai."

At this, Callaghan tried to help him to his feet, but Tadashi realized he couldn't stand because he was still holding on to Hiro.

"You don't think you still need that, do you?" Callaghan asked callously, though he didn't try to pull him away. It was quite plain that that would be his choice alone to make.

"But he...he's my life," the bereft older brother said quietly, looking down at Hiro's still face. He didn't remember a time when his life hadn't been about looking after Hiro. Without him, he would well and truly be nothing. Callaghan didn't say anything, though. He just stood, holding his hand, waiting for him to decide...and finally, Tadashi leaned down and kissed his little brother's forehead before gently laying him down on the street and removing the sword from his chest. "Sleep well, Otouto."

Then he got to his feet and allowed Callaghan to lead him away, never once looking back.

He was Tadashi Hamada no longer.

XxX

The next time the young man was faced with the boy with scruffy hair and brown eyes, he did not know him. He meant nothing to him and when the boy whispered a name in fear, it touched nothing in the young mercenary's twisted heart.

"Tadashi...please."

"Kill him," his master's voice sounded in his ear.

"Nii-chan?"

He didn't hesitate even a moment. He swept his sword up and across, swiftly decapitating the target. The head flew across the room. The body stood for a moment before collapsing to the floor, an arc of crimson blood spraying through the air. Leaning down, the mercenary wiped his blade off on a clean section of the target's shirt.

"Mission completed," he reported tersely as he sheathed his katana.

"Excellent work, Yokai," his master said as he entered the training room. "I think you're finally ready."

"Ready, Sir?"

"Yes, ready to carry out your task," he said as he held out a kabuki mask to his asset. "The neural band is concealed in this mask. You'll be able to control the microbots with it. Remember, you must never remove the mask while in the field, or allow it to be taken from you. More than losing control of the microbots, you will lose possession of your identity if you lose the mask. No one can see your face. _No one_ can know who you are. Anyone who sees your face must be killed."

"Understood," the mercenary said with a nod, taking the mask in hand. He stared at the red and black lines on the mask for a long moment before finally putting it on. The microbots that had comprised his target immediately collapsed into a mass, responding to his thoughts. The bots moved toward him and whirled around him in a small wave.

"Good. They take to you well. Though...I suppose they would, of course."

"Sir?"

"Nothing. Never mind. We need to get moving. Your first assignment is Ruby Krei, Alistair's cousin. She's his head of design," his master explained to him as he led him toward a computer terminal, showing him a dossier on his target: a woman with green eyes and strawberry blonde hair. "You will need her access codes in order to retrieve the plans. Once you've done that, eliminate her."

"Understood," he responded, quickly reading through the file before moving away from the terminal. "I will leave immediately."

XxX

It was early in the morning when Ruby Krei unlocked the door to the design lab. She was in the habit of getting in early because she liked to get going on her work before everyone else showed up. She liked the calm before the hustle and bustle started. She had a nice predictable morning routine, so when she sat down at her computer with her cup of coffee, she was doubly shocked when her routine was interrupted by a knife at her throat.

Before she could scream, a hand was placed over her mouth. "Shh," a voice breathed at her ear.

"What do you want?" she asked when her assailant finally removed the hand from her mouth.

"Silent Sparrow," a cold voice demanded of her. "Where are the files?"

"How could you possibly know about that?" Ruby asked, her voice shaking. It was supposed to have been buried. She did still have the files, of course, but no one should know about them.

"The files," the voice pressed, forcing the knife a little more harshly against the delicate skin of her neck. It wouldn't take much...

"Second drawer on the left. The green flash drive...but that project was scrapped; it was a complete failure. What could you possibly want with it?" she asked calmly.

Her attacker didn't answer her. She just saw a black-clad arm reach past her toward the indicated drawer, pulling out the flash drive. Rather than just taking the drive and leaving, though, he inserted it into her computer. In order to unlock the drive, the terminal immediately asked for a password. The man shoved her forward to input the code and she felt the blade nick her neck slightly.

"Abby," the man repeated as he watched her type in the code.

"Yes. Abby's the key to everything. Also...if Robert's still somehow alive and I'm not going to meet him now...you can tell him he's wrong. I _haven't_ moved on," Ruby said harshly. She understood what was happening now. She was ready to die.

And Yokai didn't disappoint her. Just as soon as he was certain the necessary files were in order, he slit her throat, leaving her to die choking on her own blood as he ejected the flash drive from the computer.

"The mission is complete, Sir. Was the target's message received?" Yokai asked as he strode out of the lab.

"It was. Forget about it. It means nothing. We've got bigger problems. There's an intruder sniffing around the microbot facility. I need you to go and take him out."

"Understood."

XxX

Yokai didn't need more than a moment to survey his new target. It was a boy...only a boy. He was accompanied by some sort of robot. They weren't any threat, of course, not even any challenge to him. They'd just had the misfortune of seeing too much. This would be an easy hit.

The boy noticed him just as he was summoning up the microbots. Panicking, he tried to hurry his robot away with little success. Feeling a tiny flicker of amusement at the boy's fear, the mercenary made a chase of it, allowing the fleeing pair to stay just out of his reach. He kept it up right until the boy was trying to shove the ridiculous robot out the window. They managed to slip through his grip, but he could take them easily when they were lying helpless on the street below.

It was supposed to be easy. It should have been a simple thing, to send the wave of microbots down to crush them both...but then he locked eyes with the boy.

Frightened, shocked, angered brown eyes...eyes wide and full of tears...eyes...that he'd seen before.

_Nii-chan!_

Inhaling sharply, Yokai suddenly found himself stumbling away from the window, barely managing to give a command to the microbots to catch him when he lost his feet and fell. For several moments, he just lay there, unable to comprehend...feeling like a knife had been shoved through his heart.

"What have I done? What have I done?! _What have I_ _ **done?!**_ " he couldn't keep himself from crying out, even though he had no idea _why._ Against his master's express command, he tore the mask from his face, shocked to find tears spilling down his cheeks. What was _wrong_ with him?!

Yokai had no idea how long he was out of it, but when he finally managed to regain control of himself, he jammed the mask back onto his face and got to his feet.

"R-reporting," he called back, drawing several shaky breaths. "Mission objective incomplete. The target has escaped. Pursuit at this time would be unwise. It would draw too much attention."

"Did he see your face, Yokai?" his master snarled at him through the earpiece.

"No, Sir. My identity is protected."

"Good. See that it stays that way. Return to base now. There's work to be done."

"Understood," Yokai said quietly, though it wasn't entirely true. He _didn't_ fully understand what had just happened, and if that small spike of abject agony that had pierced his heart was any indication, he wasn't sure he _did_ want to understand.

_The first chance I have, I will kill the boy. He is dangerous._

But while that resolve was planting itself firmly in his mind, there was also something deeper at work. There was something deep inside...something so deep as to almost be gone...something that knew he would _die_ first.

_Who are you? Who is...Nii-chan?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'd say we've punished Tadashi well and enough. Next time out, we'll see what Hiro thinks of all this.


	3. Fever Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...you all wanted this scene, so here it is. Believe me when I say that I have only just begun to torture our heroes. *mine is an evil laugh*

It wasn't difficult for Yokai to forget his failure at the warehouse. There was always a task his master had for him to focus on. There were targets that needed eliminating and scraps that needing gathering in order to complete his master objective. It was on a scrap run that very same night, however, that he came up against his target once more.

There were others with the boy this time, none of which were any particular threat. Then they just made it easier for him to kill them by all piling into a single car and attempting to run away.

Yokai didn't hold back this time. He put all of his efforts into crushing the vehicle. The target couldn't escape this time. He _couldn't_ allow the boy to affect him anymore. The newly armored robot put up some resistance, blocking some of his more vicious attacks, but it was ultimately for nothing when he finally managed to force the vehicle off a dock and into the bay. When the car disappeared beneath the water and nothing resurfaced, the young mercenary stopped breathing.

Yokai fled the scene as quickly as possible, borne away on the wave of microbots, struggling every moment to draw breath and failing. When he couldn't focus enough to control the bots anymore, they collapsed and he was sent crashing to the ground in some dank, desolate back alley. His lungs burned with the desperate need for air, but no matter how hard he fought, he couldn't breathe.

_You don't_ _**deserve** _ _to breathe! What have you done? You monster! What have you_ _**done?!** _

_I did...what I had to,_ he reasoned as the world began to darken around the edges. _I followed my master's orders. They had to die. There was no other choice._

_There's always a choice...Tadashi._

_Nii-chan, Nii-chan,_ _**Nii-chan, NII-CHAN!NII-CHAN!** _

" _NO!_ " he screamed, bashing his head against the pavement. Nii-chan wasn't him. _Tadashi_ wasn't him. This wasn't him. He was _Yokai!_ He was a weapon to be used at his master's whim. Behind the door marked 'Tadashi'...there was only pain. He didn't _want_ that pain. He wanted to be _free._ He _was_ free.

With that determination, the cold snap of oxygen flooded his lungs. Finally able to breathe again, the young assassin slowly got to his feet, calling the microbots to him once more.

Tadashi, whoever he was, was dead. He was Yokai once more.

"Reporting. Mission objective interrupted. The target from earlier and others attempted to intervene. They have been eliminated."

"You're certain?" his master's voice sounded over the earpiece. "You're absolutely certain the boy is dead?"

"Yes, Sir. He is drowned."

"Good," his master said, his voice low and soft. "Very good. You have done well, Yokai. Continue with your mission objective."

"Understood."

XxX

Baymax was confused.

Granted, it was technically impossible for a robot to be confused, but it was the only adjective he could find that correlated correctly to his current state of cognitive dissonance.

He had scanned the man who was pursuing them. He still had his creator's scans on file.

Except for a difference in neural patterning, they were a perfect match. If he did not already have Tadashi's death certificate on file, he would say that the man in the mask _was_ Tadashi.

He considered informing Hiro of this when he was telling him about the scans he'd taken, but when Hiro and the others started getting excited about being able to track the man and apprehending him, Baymax thought better of it. This inconsistency must surely be a malfunction in programming. It would be taken care of when Hiro upgraded his scanners.

There was no sense in risking Hiro's treatment over something that was almost certainly his own failing.

XxX

If someone had told Hiro Hamada a year ago that he would basically be living the bot fighting scene he was so into, he would have told that someone they were completely whacked. It was awesome, of course, but up until a week ago, he would have said it was totally crazy.

_Well,_ he reasoned as he dodged another blow from the microbots, _finding out your brother was basically murdered changes a kid._

He didn't really care if Krei was the one under the mask. All he knew was that this was the man who had started the fire and stolen his microbots. Whoever it was, this was the man who was responsible for Tadashi's death, and he was going to _punish_ him!

Wasabi, Fred, and Honey Lemon were down, but GoGo managed to get in one more shot just as Baymax was blocking another wave of microbots. Hiro was knocked away from Baymax, but the backlash also knocked the man in the mask down. When Hiro saw his mask lying on the floor where it had fallen, he immediately sprang forward and snatched it.

"It's over, Krei!" he shouted. He was going to see this man rotted in jail for what he did to Tadashi.

The man quickly got to his feet, pulling off the hood that conceal his hair, as it had been singed by one of Honey Lemon's attacks. The man was still facing away from him as he brushed small bits of debris from his black coat, but Hiro still caught a glimpse of mussed black hair in the dim light. Maybe...maybe it wasn't Krei at all.

"Give me the mask," the man demanded harshly, still facing away from him.

"Did you not hear me the first time? This ends right now. Maybe I don't get what you're up to here, but my brother is _dead_ because of it! I'm taking you down!" Hiro snarled. He was about an inch from jumping the man himself. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something unsettlingly familiar about the man's voice.

"Maybe _you_ did not hear _me._ Give me the mask, _boy!_ " the man growled as he turned to face him...and when Hiro saw his face, he felt something inside of him _break._

The hair was longer, much scragglier, and there were scars that hadn't been there before. A particularly ugly one ran from the outer corner of his right eye along his cheek down to the jawline. His eyes both were and were not the same. They were still _his_ eyes, but the warmth and humor and protectiveness he'd known was gone.

"T- Tadashi?" he whispered in shock, clutching the kabuki mask in white knuckles. Hyperaware as he was at the moment, he saw Tadashi stiffen at the name.

"Who the fuck is Tadashi?" his brother snarled at him, eyes narrowing in distrust. "How do you know that name?"

"You... _you're_ Tadashi," he whispered, feeling his heart break a little more with each word this man who was and was not his brother spoke.

"No, I'm not. Tadashi isn't here. I am Yokai," he insisted.

"No. You died. You're _dead!_ How can you even _be here?_ " Hiro demanded, feeling tears start to pour down his face as he stared into his brother's eyes - eyes that didn't know him anymore.

"Tadashi...Tadashi is _weak!_ " the thing that called itself Yokai spat at him, his face twisting into an ugly rictus of anger, a mockery of his brother's kind face.

"He _is_ Tadashi," Baymax's gentle voice explained as the robot moved to stand beside Hiro. "I had thought it to be an error in my programming, but there is no error. They are perfect biological matches."

"Then what the hell happened?!" Hiro shouted, only briefly turning his attention to the healthcare bot before looking back to Tadashi. "How did you survive? _Why have you been trying to_ _ **kill**_ _me?!_ "

"Because that is the command of my master," he answered.

"Master?" Hiro heard Wasabi murmur in confusion. The others were all starting to regroup around him.

"Tadashi's neural patterning has been significantly altered. This would normally indicate head injury of some kind, but there is no sign of physical damage to the brain," Baymax continued to explain. "Unable to diagnose."

"Tadashi...what the _hell,_ man?" GoGo tried to ask him, moving forward to rest a hand on Hiro's shoulder.

"I don't know how all of you know this name, but I am _not_ Tadashi. He was weak. Tadashi is _gone!_ " he snapped at them.

"Then we'll get him back!" Hiro shouted at him, swiping futilely at the tears streaking down his face. "No matter what it takes...I'm gonna get you back, Tadashi. I promise."

"Keep your promise. I have no use for it!"

"Dude, it's over. You can't control the microbots anymore," Fred reminded him, decidedly less enthused than he had been at the beginning of the fight.

Tadashi sneered at them as he drew a katana. "I do not require the microbots in order to eliminate you. That will be easy enough."

"Wait," Yokai suddenly heard his master's voice from his earpiece. "Don't attack them. I have something much...better...in mind. The boy has installed a subroutine in the robot's programming. The robot will listen to your commands, Yokai. You only need to repeat these words."

The small band of heroes didn't at first understand what was happening when the man they knew as Tadashi sheathed his blade. For several moments, he just stood in silence, almost as if listening for something. When he finally focused in on them again, his attention was on Baymax.

"Baymax, authorization code 246R1. Programmer override. Acknowledge."

"Acknowledged...Tadashi," the robot said, immediately going completely still.

"Run program S626. Delete primary programming. Acknowledge."

"Acknowledged...Tadashi," Baymax said slowly. Then he gave several beeps and whirs before falling devastatingly still and silent.

"Baymax? No! _Baymax!_ " Hiro shouted, shaking the robot, beating his fists against it. Baymax remained completely unresponsive. "Damn it, Tadashi! What did you _do?!_ "

"Engage subroutine R1N2L3R."

At this, Baymax gave an unsettling whir as he hummed back to life, eyes now glowing an eerie red.

"Tadashi, what are you doing? Stop this! Please!" Honey Lemon tried to reason with him.

"Baymax... _destroy!_ " Tadashi ordered, pointing directly at Hiro.

"B- Baymax?" Hiro whispered in fear as he started to back away, knowing exactly what kind of subroutine he'd implanted.

"Destroy him!" Tadashi repeated firmly.

"Baymax...please," Hiro tried one last time.

"Hiro, _run!_ " GoGo shouted as Baymax drew back a fist to deliver a crushing blow. Finally unfreezing, the younger Hamada took off, only just escaping having his skull bashed in.

Wasabi, GoGo, and Fred all banded together to try and stop him, but they were no match for the berserker robot. He pursued Hiro with relentless intent, and Hiro ran for his life, terror and horror both beating in his blood.

_Tadashi set Baymax on me._ _**Tadashi** _ _is trying to_ _**kill** _ _me!_

"Tadashi, _please!_ Call him off. You've got to stop!" Honey Lemon pleaded, going to Tadashi to try and stop him picking up the mask Hiro had dropped, but he pushed her back easily.

"This isn't you! This isn't the Tadashi Hamada I met two years ago! He wouldn't do this! Please! He'll kill Hiro, Tadashi! You've got to stop him!"

"Why should I stop the robot?" Tadashi asked, shooting her a cold glare. "The boy is nothing to me."

"That's just not true. He's your baby brother! Please, Tadashi! You've _got_ to remember! Hiro means the _world_ to you! Nothing could make you hurt him!"

"Brother...?" Yokai repeated slowly, feeling the flicker of pain he'd buried before start to prick at the back of his mind.

The others tried to stop Baymax, but it was no use. He was throwing them off like toy soldiers, gaining on Hiro all the while. Finally, when there was nowhere left to run, Hiro turned to face Baymax, frightened beyond all reason, but ready to face what he'd done. _He_ had introduced this subroutine to his brother's creation, after all.

"Tadashi...I'm sorry. I'm _so sorry,_ " he whispered as Baymax bore down on him. He wasn't sure how he knew, but he did, just the same. Tadashi had been hurt because of him. This had happened because of his microbots. This was _his fault!_

" _Hiro!_ " Fred screamed as GoGo clawed desperately at the access port.

"Hiro?" Yokai whispered, a faint memory sparking to life...a toddler with sad brown eyes, holding his hands out, asking to be picked up.

_Nii-chan..._

" _TADASHI!_ " Hiro screamed in terror. Yokai looked up just in time to see Baymax deliver a crunching blow to the boy's midsection.

Hiro didn't cry out as he was sent flying across the room. He flew several feet before landing hard on the concrete. When he coughed, he felt indescribable pain in several of his ribs, but that wasn't even the worst of it. When he looked at the floor beside his head, he faintly realized he was coughing up blood. It hurt so much to breathe. Something was horribly wrong.

" _HIRO!_ " Honey Lemon shrieked as she ran to him. Wasabi and Fred weren't far behind. GoGo had finally managed to get the port open and remove Hiro's programming chip, leaving only the useless, erased primary chip in the port. Suddenly devoid of a core program, Baymax immediately shut down, collapsing and partially deflating.

"Oh, God, oh, God, Hiro!" Wasabi cried out as the four friends gathered around the fallen boy. "What can we do?"

"Stay with us, Hiro. Please hold on," Honey Lemon pleaded with him.

"Hiro, can you hear me?!" GoGo shouted at him, fighting to get his attention.

"Come on, little man. You can do it. You can pull through," Fred encouraged as he pulled the head off of his battle suit.

Hiro wasn't really aware of any of it. All he knew was pain...pain in his ribs...and deeper inside...something was broken. Breathing hurt, staying awake hurt, and through all that pain, all he could see was Tadashi, staring at him in numb shock.

"N...Nii-chan," he whispered, tasting blood on his lips as he struggled to hold a hand out to his big brother, but that hand fell limply to the floor as consciousness finally slipped through his fingers.

Yokai didn't hear any of what was happening...didn't see the others. All he could see was the boy reaching out to him...and the word as it formed on his lips.

_Nii-chan..._

_Hiro!_

" _NOOOO!_ " he shrieked as he fell to his knees, a sound of such utter anguish and despair it caused the others to turn to him in fear.

At Tadashi's breakdown, the microbots seemed almost to react on their own. They swarmed up around him, easily imprisoning him within their grasp. He tried to fight, but he was no match for the near endless supply of bots. Before anyone could really do anything, he was bound and swept away on the wave of microbots.

"Tadashi!" GoGo shouted, trying to go after him.

"Wait!" Honey Lemon argued, grabbing ahold of her wrist. "We have to get Hiro out of here _now._ He needs help."

"Don't worry, I'll call Heathcliff," Fred told them. "He'll be able to get us some help."

XxX

Yokai was dragged, screaming, back to his master. When he was finally released from the ball of microbots, a handful remained behind to keep his wrists and ankles bound.

"You disappoint me, Yokai," his master chided, his voice deadly quiet as he appeared to him out of the darkness. "First you let them take the mask from you. Now _this._ "

"Hiro...Hiro..." he mumbled helplessly, not really seeing the man before him. Angered, his master reached out and slapped him hard across the face.

"Look at me, Yokai," he growled, forcing the young man's head up to look at him. "What is your name?"

"I...I..."

" _Say your name!_ " Callaghan snarled, shaking him.

"Yo...Yo- k..."

"Say it...or you will be _punished._ "

Punishment didn't compute in the young mercenary's head. There was pain enough in his own heart...a fire that wouldn't go out, no matter how hard he struggled to smother it. Hiro...his little brother...and Callaghan had tried to murder him...using _his_ hands.

"I...am... _Tadashi!_ " he screamed, his struggle against the microbots holding him renewed. Callaghan sighed before pulling out a hypodermic needle, jabbing him in the neck and quickly emptying its contents into his veins. As the drug slowly took effect, he looked up at Callaghan with dazed eyes, realizing he was wearing a neural band.

"No, you're _not,_ " Callaghan said firmly. "Tadashi doesn't exist. He's _gone._ I should have known, though, that you'd never be able to destroy the boy. I expected too much of you. That's why I thought it best to engage your creation. After all, it's basically the same thing as you killing him yourself, isn't it," he said, sneering cruelly at him as he watched his struggling slowly weaken, succumbing to the drug in his system.

"Baymax," he said quietly, feeling something disgusted and unsettled in the pit of his stomach. He didn't fully understand why, but he knew what had happened was wrong. Baymax was meant to help people, not...not _this._

"Really, the boy's done an excellent job with your project. Baymax might actually be a threat to me if he were still operational, but he's out of my way now...along with the boy."

"No, he's not," Tadashi hissed.

"What was that?"

"He's not dead!" Tadashi shouted. " _He's not!_ You can't make me hurt him!"

Callaghan glared at him as he drew closer once again. "Oh, I _seriously_ doubt that, Yokai. Do you even remember who he is?"

"He...he's Hiro," the young man said with more conviction than he felt.

"And who is he to you?"

For several moments, the young mercenary struggled to remember; he knew he'd just had it. For one brief moment, he'd been holding that precious memory in his hands, but then it was gone. Now it was just a name and a face with nothing attached to it.

_You're precious to me. I_ _**know** _ _you are. Who are you? Hiro..._

_Nii-chan._

"I don't know," he finally had to admit, his head slumping to the ground. The microbots didn't need to hold him anymore. He couldn't move on his own.

"That's right...because he's not anything to you. _No one_ is anything to you. You belong to _me,_ Yokai. You have no past," his master snapped at him before starting to move away.

"You're wrong," he dared to whisper.

His master didn't turn to look at him. For a moment, he just stood, staring at the far wall.

"Excuse me?"

"I said you're _wrong,_ " the young mercenary spat at him. "Just because I can't remember...doesn't mean this isn't real. I'll find the answer. You _cannot_ stop me!"

His master sighed as he turned to face him, a pitying smile moving across his face. The look slowly shifted into a sneer as he moved back toward him.

"It seems to me you've forgotten your place here. I'll just have to _remind_ you," he snarled as he knelt beside Yokai's unmoving body, seizing him by the collar and lifting him up. "Have I been too generous with you? Have you forgotten that I can tear you apart and put you back together? We won't have anymore of these glitches, Yokai. I'll bury your heart so deep, it will _never_ come to light again. _Nothing_ Hiro Hamada does will be able to save you this time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...was it heartbreaking enough for you? Ready for more?


	4. Stand in the Rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I am so sorry to leave you all hanging for so long. I got sick over the holidays and I've got a Supernatural fic going that requires pretty much constant attention. I also had a time of it figuring out the medical lingo in this chapter. I don't know how well I succeed, but I try to make that stuff as accurate as I can. Hopefully, all this further torture was worth waiting for.

For the longest time, Fred hadn't paid much attention to the world outside his parents' mansion. It seemed like a pretty crappy place, so he mostly kept away from it, burying himself in fictional worlds. Tadashi and the gang had been the first real friends he'd ever had, but they weren't really into the whole comic book scene, so he tried to keep quiet about it. He didn't always succeed, but he tried. It had been getting harder to do ever since Hiro had started them all on this quest to track down the man in the kabuki mask, and with everything they'd just learned, it was pretty much impossible. Fred didn't know when it had happened, but the world had turned into a comic, and as Heathcliff flew them away from Akuma Island, the young man couldn't keep his thoughts from turning to just what else might be going on.

"Guys," Fred started heavily as he watched Wasabi and Honey Lemon strip Hiro out of his armor, keeping him on his side so he didn't choke on the blood he was coughing up, "we can't take him to a hospital."

For a long moment, the other three just stared at him in shock and horror. Wasabi was the one to finally break the silence with, "Man, I get you're a little whacked in the head, but are you seriously out of your god damn mind?"

"Hiro's going to _die_ if we don't get him some help," Honey Lemon protested.

"I get that, and we're _going_ to get him some help, but it's too dangerous to take him to a hospital."

"And why's that?" GoGo asked, glaring at him like she just might kill him if he said the wrong thing.

"Think about it. Tadashi's alive. There's no way he should be. Even if it isn't Krei, somebody pretty powerful is behind all this. If there's somebody who's got the resources to turn Tadashi Hamada into this Yokai character, he can definitely get to Hiro in a place as public as a hospital. We need to hide him, get him somewhere safe."

For another long stretch of time, the only sound to be heard was the beating of the rotor blades. This time, GoGo was the one to bring an end to it when she pounded a fist against the side of the helicopter.

"Much as I wanna call you out for being a paranoid dork...I'm afraid you might be right. But what are we supposed to do about it? Hiro's going to die without help, and if he dies...if he dies, it'll mean that _Tadashi_ killed him. We can't let that happen."

"You guys _know_ where we can get help. You know exactly where," Fred reminded them all, looking at each of them in turn, and almost at the same time, they realized what he meant.

"Whoa," Honey Lemon breathed in shock.

"She'll be able to help, sure," GoGo said, burying her face in her hands, "but how's she going to react when we tell her Tadashi's not dead?"

"Can we really do this?" Wasabi asked.

"We don't have any choice," GoGo growled, still not looking up. The decision was final and they all knew it.

"Heathcliff!" Fred called out as he moved up to the front of the chopper. "Get us to SFIT."

XxX

When most people woke up to see two pages full of Bs on the screen from where their nose had rested against the keyboard after falling asleep at the computer, most people would have taken that as a sign to call it quits for the night and head home to a nice, soft bed.

Suri Avicenna was not most people.

When the young med student had shaken herself awake and repaired the document she'd been working on, she moved to the other side of her small lab space and buried her nose in the mint plant she kept there, inhaling its sharp scent to snap her out of the haze of sleep. Before heading back to her desk, she snapped a leaf off her yerba mate plant and began to chew on it, all in the name of staying awake just that little bit longer. Many college students who worked long hours weren't fully aware of just how unhealthy such habits were, but being a med student, Suri knew. She was aware just what limits she was pushing her body to and _why,_ but she tried very hard not to think about the why. That avoidance of her thoughts, however, was about to be made impossible.

The turn of fortune began just as she was about to sit back at her computer and her phone started ringing. Unable to find it, Suri moved around the small space again, searching among the many potted plants she kept herself surrounded with. Finally finding it nestled between two small rose bushes, she answered it just before it stopped ringing.

"Hello?"

"Rosie? It's Honey Lemon."

"I...I remember," Suri said quietly, feeling a tremor run down her spine. It had been a while since she'd spoken with Honey Lemon or any of Tadashi's friends. "What is it? What do you need?"

"Rosie...we need your help. Can you come down and let us in?"

"Sure," she said before hanging up and hurrying out of the ward where she was working. She had no idea why, but the chill persisted all the way down to the main entry, which was locked up by this time of night. Just outside the glass doors, she could see Honey Lemon and the others. Wasabi was carrying something, but she couldn't say what with the dim light from the streetlamps. Once she'd carded them in, though, there was no denying what the tall young man was carrying.

A boy...Hiro Hamada.

"My god, what happened?" she demanded, immediately going to check his pulse while noting the dribble of blood spattering the side of his face. Already, his lips were tinged with blue - a sure sign of hypoxia.

"Baymax happened," GoGo answered bitterly.

" _What?_ " Suri asked in shock, looking around at all of them. "That- that's impossible. That wasn't part of Tadashi's programming. How could something like this happen?"

"It's a long story, Rosie. We don't have time to tell it. Hiro needs help _now,_ " Wasabi insisted.

"Of course. Follow me," Suri responded, pushing aside her feelings of shock and horror and instantly snapping into professional mode, leading the way back to the ward. There would be time to sort through her own feelings later. Right now, Tadashi's little brother needed her. She could not let another Hamada die.

XxX

Cass was on her feet the moment she heard the furious pounding on the locked cafe door. If it was Hiro, he certainly wouldn't be knocking on the door. That could only mean something was wrong.

Ever since she'd discovered Hiro wasn't in his room, she'd been struggling not to just up and call the cops. Disappearing in the night wasn't exactly outside of her nephew's M.O., but when neither he nor any of his friends had answered their phones, then she'd really begun to worry. After what had happened to Tadashi, well...she just couldn't let herself think about it. When she saw GoGo and Wasabi standing outside the door looking worried and exhausted, it became nearly impossible to push the fear back.

 _Dear god, please tell me he's all right. I can't lose both of them. I can't! I can't_ _**take** _ _it!_

"Where's Hiro?" she demanded the moment she'd yanked the door open.

"Cass, he's hurt...bad," Wasabi tried to explain. "You need to come with us."

"I don't understand. What's happening?"

"It's a long story. Honestly, _I_ still don't believe parts of it, but you just...you've gotta come with us _right now!_ " GoGo insisted. "We'll explain on the way."

"Right," Cass finally nodded, quickly locking up the darkened cafe behind her. "Let's go."

XxX

Suri stood outside the window of the small med ward, looking in on Hiro, who lay comatose on the hospital bed. The bed wasn't very big to begin with, but with the small figure of the boy lying there, helpless and wasted, the small white bed almost seemed to engulf him. She'd run tracheal tubes down to his lungs so he'd be able to breathe properly. She'd also implanted several chest tubes along the injury site, draining off blood and other fluids from his chest cavity to prevent any further obstruction of his breathing. She'd done what she could for now and he was mostly stable, but in order to do more, she would need permission from Cass.

What was happening to Hiro was horrible. She didn't see how things could possibly be worse...but then Honey Lemon had told her just _who_ had set Baymax on Hiro.

At first, she didn't say anything. She just stared at her patient - she had to think of him that way; if she thought of Hiro Hamada as anything else, she might just lose it - raising her hand up to the glass and splaying her fingers across the cool surface. Every time she tried to speak, a fresh stab of grief pierced her heart and her throat closed up on her, threatening to choke her.

"Suri?" Honey Lemon called out uncertainly, not using the nickname the group normally used for her. The med student drew a shaky breath as her hand curled into a fist against the glass, finally mastering herself enough to speak.

"What do you mean...he's not dead?"

"I can't tell you what I mean. I can only tell you what we saw," Honey Lemon said, her eyes full of pity when Suri finally looked back at her.

"We knew...this would be hard for you," Fred said, his own expression heavy with sadness as he pushed himself up from where he'd been leaning against the back wall, "but you were the only one we could go to."

"No...I understand. It's not- _your_ fault," Suri struggled to explain, her throat threatening to close up on her again as she fought against the tears she'd been holding back for the last several months. "I just-"

Whatever she'd been trying to say was cut off when Wasabi, GoGo, and Cass all burst into the room.

"Where's Hiro? Is he all right!" Cass demanded frantically. Suri nodded toward the window.

"He's stable for the moment. He's suffered a flail chest injury. A more invasive procedure's going to be needed in order to properly correct it. I'm going to need your consent before I proceed with it," Suri explained, drawing herself back from the painful memories the others' words had brought to the surface, withdrawing into professionalism once again.

"Of course," Cass said without hesitation, slowly turning to look back at the young med student. "Tadashi trusted you...and so do I. Hiro's life couldn't be in better hands."

"Thank you," she said quietly, gaze shifting to the floor. She wasn't sure she could bring herself to say what she knew she needed to. "Did...did they tell you what happened?"

Cass' eyes widened at this, as if she'd only just realized what all this meant for Suri. "Oh...oh, sweetheart," she said softly, quickly moving toward her and pulling her into a tight hug. It was this, more than anything, that made the young woman want to burst into tears. She hadn't allowed anyone this close since...well, since Tadashi's death. "I'm not sure if I can believe it myself. I can't _imagine_ what it must be like for you...to hear this _now._ "

"It's fine," Suri mumbled, turning away as she pulled herself out of Cass' arms. "We...we can talk later. I need to prep Hiro for surgery."

"Suri?" GoGo called after her before she could head out the door. "Are you _sure_ you're all right? You're _sure_ you can handle this?"

For a moment, Suri just stood there, her hand pressed against the door to push it open. It took time for her to gather up her pain and thrust it down into a dark corner where it couldn't do any damage, but when she'd managed it, she was able to answer honestly.

"No. I'm not all right. But I _can_ handle this. For now...I will be what Hiro needs me to be. I'll do for him what I _failed_ to do for Tadashi."

XxX

_"Who the fuck is Tadashi?"_

_Those eyes glare back at him with malice and cruelty...brown eyes that had once been warm and full of laughter...eyes that no longer hold any recognition._

_"Tadashi isn't here. I am Yokai."_

_**No. No! You're my brother. You**_ are _ **Tadashi! Oh, God, I thought you were dead. Tadashi! THEY TOLD ME YOU WERE DEAD!**_

 _"Tadashi is_ _**gone!** _ _" the now strange voice snarls at him. There's a terrifying fire burning in this man's eyes._

 _"It can't be," he hears himself whispering. He reaches out his hands for his brother...desperate, pleading. "Tadashi...Tadashi,_ _**please** _ _-"_

 _"TADASHI IS_ _**GONE!** _ _" Yokai screams at him. The fire in his eyes is burning all around them as he comes at him. When the man who was once his brother wraps his hands around his throat, he doesn't fight back. Pulling him close, he hisses in his ear, "This is_ _**your** _ _fault."_

 _"Tadashi..." he chokes, struggling to get the words out. "I'm sorry. I'm so...so_ _**sorry.** _ _"_

 _"Of_ _**course** _ _you're sorry," the cold, pitiless voice continues to growl in his ear. "Everybody's sorry...after it's_ _**too late.** _ _"_

_"Tadashi...if it's what you want...go ahead and kill me," he chokes out, somehow managing to speak even though the fingers continue to tighten around his throat, the iron grip choking the life out of him. "If it's...for you...if it will make you happy...I don't mind dying."_

_At this, Yokai flings him to the ground. He feels a horrible, searing pain deep in his chest as the mercenary moves to stand over him, eyes blazing as he glares down at him._

_"_ _**Destroy!** _ _"_

"Tadashi!" Hiro cried out weakly as he snapped out of the nightmare. For a moment, he struggled to move, but found his limbs were too sluggish to shift even a little.

"Don't try to move, Hiro," an unfamiliar voice ordered, gentle but firm. "It's all right. You're safe now."

"Where-" Hiro started to ask, but found himself coughing weakly instead. The breathing tubes he felt traveling from his nostrils down his throat didn't allow for easy speech. It took him a moment to figure out how to speak without feeling like he might throw up. "Where am I?"

"The med tech building at SFIT," the soothing voice answered. Its owner finally came into his line of sight after a few minutes of silence: a young woman with a mess of long, dark brown curls, skin the color of dark honey, and bright blue eyes. He didn't recognize her voice, but he thought maybe he'd seen her somewhere before. "You were badly injured in the fight. Your friends brought you to me for treatment."

"The guys," Hiro started, fighting not to talk too much around the breathing tubes. "Are they all right?"

"They're all fine. Only a few minor scratches between the four of them. _You_ were the one who was seriously hurt. It's been very touch-go for the past two days."

"Two _days?_ " Hiro repeated, just about choking on the tubes that time. "I've been out...for two days?"

"Yes."

"What...what happened to me?" he asked. All he could really remember was the hit...and the horrific pain in his chest. It was still there, but only vaguely...like it was just outside of his awareness, waiting to strike when he least expected it.

"You took a hit from Baymax. Even though he wasn't designed for combat, his inner structure is still very strong. Your armor is probably the only reason you survived that blow at all. He broke several ribs. It caused a flail chest injury. Do you know what that is?"

"Sorta," he mumbled, briefly squeezing his eyes shut to block out the memory of Baymax coming at him. "Happens in...car crashes?"

"Yes. The ribs break and separate from the chest wall, causing movement independent of the rest of the wall. In severe cases, the fractured ribs may pierce the lungs and cause pulmonary contusion. That's what happened to you. Thankfully, your lungs were only bruised and not completely punctured. They might not have been able to get you to me in time were that the case. Even so, bruising will still cause fluid to enter the lung tissue and obstruct breathing. Until this morning, I had chest tubes installed to drain the blood off, but the contusions are healing well enough on their own."

"What about...the busted ribs? They're not still a problem?"

"No. Once you were stable, their repair was my first priority. I went in surgically and set the ribs. They're currently braced with a steel plate. I wouldn't recommend anymore strenuous activity until you heal."

Hiro winced at this, memories he didn't want swimming to the surface of his hazy mind. "Dunno if I can make that promise, doc."

The woman stared at him uncertainly for a moment before shaking her head. "I understand. I know what happened...who attacked you. I just hope you're prepared to accept the consequences should you choose to risk re-injury. There's only so much I can do to save your life if you insist on throwing it away. If you think it will help Tadashi, you're _wrong,_ " she said, a brief flare of anger flashing in her eyes.

"So it...it really happened? I wasn't dreaming? Tadashi, he...he's really alive?" Hiro asked as the woman moved away from him to check one of several monitors in a nearby bank. The feeling that gripped his heart was so intense, he couldn't identify it. It could have been anything from hope to horror to anger. Whatever it was, this feeling was almost more painful than either his cracked ribs or the tube running down his throat.

The doctor's shoulders tensed briefly at his question and she didn't turn back to look at him when she answered. "It would seem so. GoGo showed me...Baymax's footage of what happened. I think...at the same time...we all do and do not want to believe it."

"Yeah," Hiro mumbled, gaze drifting up to the bare white ceiling. "He's not dead, but...what _happened_ to him?" he wondered aloud, voice cracking near the end. He didn't know which was worse: the nights of grieving for his brother's death...or the harsh cruelty in his eyes when he'd ordered his own creation to kill him.

"Whatever happened...he isn't the Tadashi that we knew. I can't imagine what he might have been through."

At this, Hiro slowly dragged his attention away from his own painful thoughts and focused on the woman in the room with him. The thought was only just occurring to him, but... "You knew Tadashi?"

Finally, the doctor turned back to look at him. Her face was composed, but there was pain in her eyes. It was a pain he knew...that he'd lived with.

"I did. I do."

"How? Were you friends? I think...I might have seen you before," he said, conjuring up a vague memory of she and his brother crouched over a computer.

The doctor managed a small smile at this. "I'm sorry. I suppose I haven't properly introduced myself yet. My name is Suri Avicenna. The others call me Rosie. I'll respond to either, though. I suppose you could say Tadashi and I were friends... _good_ friends. He was a brilliant roboticist, but do you really think he came up with Baymax's programming all on his own?"

"So...you were partners?" he asked, feeling bad he hadn't known that.

"Something like that. The entire project was his brainchild...his baby...but he needed the expertise of a med student to know just what would need to be included. That's how we met. We designed the program together, but everything else was his. I had to leave for my abroad residency training before he actually started building Baymax. I...I was still in New Cairo when...when it happened," she said, looking away from him, but he still managed to glimpse the sudden redness in her eyes and the slight tremble of her shoulders.

"You...you _liked_ him," Hiro said slowly, not sure how he knew, but certain all the same.

"Yes...yes, I did," she answered, her voice calm though her hands shook, "and I've regretted every day since his death that I didn't tell him that. I often think that...maybe...if he'd known...he wouldn't have done anything stupid that day. Except we all know that's not true. He would have done what he did because that's who he was...is...I don't know," she said with a pained shrug, and when she looked him in the eyes again, he could see that she blamed herself for what had happened just as much as he'd always blamed himself, even though there was no logical reason for her to. The only difference was that he _knew_ this was somehow his fault.

"I'm sure...he cared about you, too. It wasn't your fault," he said, wanting to reassure her any way he possibly could. Talking to her about Tadashi was somehow different from talking to any of the others. She smiled sadly as she looked at him.

"Thank you for that...but I think you know I won't believe it anymore than you do yourself. It wasn't anyone's fault. Even if you all manage to save him, it won't erase what happened. It's never just one person who dies, Hiro. Really, we...we _all_ die a little bit," she said softly, and he could tell she was just as close to crying as he was. It was like she was giving voice to all the things he'd felt. It wasn't the hopeless, hollow comfort other people tried to give him. It was the same pain he'd felt...and in that moment, he was just as resolved to help her as he was to help Tadashi.

"Not 'if'," he said, making his voice as firm as he could manage.

"What?" she asked, blinking in confusion.

"Not 'if' I save him. I _am_ going to. I don't care what it takes. I'm gonna get my brother back."

"Well, if anyone can do it, I surely believe _you_ can. You just need to get some rest first."

"On that subject...when are these tubes coming out?" Hiro asked, fighting around another gag reflex.

"Another few hours yet. I want to be certain. They'll be out before I let your friends in, but right now, there's someone else who wants to see you," she said, nodding her head toward the door. When he followed her gaze, he saw the door open to reveal his aunt standing on the other side.

"Aunt Cass," he mumbled, swallowing nervously around the breathing tubes. "What...what are you doing here?"

"What am I _doing_ here?" she repeated incredulously. "Well, I'm glad _someone_ felt it was important to let me know my knuckle-headed nephew might be dying, especially when he didn't tell me himself that he was going to recklessly try and throw his life away!"

"I'm sorry," he whispered, finally feeling the tears start to fall. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I knew you'd...try to stop me."

Cass didn't say anything at first. She just charged toward the hospital bed, throwing her arms around him while somehow managing not to disturb the tubes and wires he was hooked up to. It wasn't long before Hiro felt his neck start to grow wet with her tears.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again.

"Lost him...nearly lost you...my sister's boys. You two idiots can't keep doing this to me!" she sobbed into his neck as she held him.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he said over and over again, not sure how many times he repeated it as they held each other and cried. It was more emotion than they'd shown each other even at Tadashi's death. At his resurrection, well...how could anyone be expected to know how to react to something that was both a miracle and a nightmare?

XxX

"Yes...yes, I believe you're ready now," Callaghan said as he circled around his mercenary, speaking more to himself than to the young man he had turned into his own personal tool and weapon.

Yokai stood completely still as he was inspected, saying nothing and looking at nothing...thinking nothing. After all, he _was_ nothing. In order to survive the horrors what was left of Tadashi Hamada had experienced over the past forty-eight hours, Yokai had had no choice but to break from the shattered, twisted piece of soul. Maybe it still existed. Maybe it didn't. It no longer mattered. It was pain, and it had to be erased.

"No, I don't expect we'll be having anymore glitches. Now I want you to be perfectly clear on this point, Yokai. No matter what anyone might say to you, if you happen to think something, or heaven forbid _feel_ something, you are not to engage with anyone. You speak only to your master. Anything else is merely an obstacle to be disposed of. Is that understood?"

"Understood," Yokai responded tersely, not looking at him.

"Look at me, Yokai," Callaghan ordered sharply.

Yokai responded immediately, looking into his creator's eyes. Callaghan felt a slowly swelling sense of pride when he found nothing in those eyes. Tadashi Hamada had been curious, capable, caring, and protective. Nothing of that boy remained in these soulless brown eyes. Yokai was nothing. He would serve Callaghan's purpose...then he would die.

"Good," the former professor said quietly, reaching a hand forward to cup the boy's cheek in his palm. "Now go. _Destroy them._ "


	5. My Sutures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, sorry for such a long absence. The physical world, she calleth. For anyone out there still reading, I surely hope you enjoy this fresh batch of torture.

As Rosie had told Hiro, she let the rest of the gang in to see him just as soon as she'd removed the breathing tubes – a massively unpleasant experience that he'd just as soon forget, thank you very much – and just like he'd expected, they were none too eager to let him see the footage they'd recovered from Akuma Island.

"Really, Hiro, I don't see what there's left to figure out," Wasabi said in response to his request. "I'd say it's pretty obvious at this point that Krei's the one behind all this. Silent Sparrow was his project and he's definitely got the resources to do…whatever it is he did to Tadashi."

"That's just it. I'm not so sure," Hiro responded as he tapped away on the laptop Rosie had leant him.

"And what makes you say that?" GoGo asked.

"The commands that Tadashi gave Baymax…the programmer override and the erasure codes…how would Krei know about those?" he pressed, doing his best not to remember the moment he spoke of. "He's a businessman, not a roboticist."

"Uh, the dude's some kinda billionaire mastermind. Pretty sure he's got guys workin' for him," Fred argued.

"No…I don't think so," Hiro muttered to himself as he continued to work. "It wasn't standard coding. If…if Tadashi doesn't remember me…or any of us…I seriously doubt he remembers Baymax's backdoor codes. To know that those exist…that would take somebody at _my_ level…or Professor Callaghan."

"But…Hiro…Professor Callaghan's dead," Honey Lemon pointed out.

"So was Tadashi…until forty-eight hours ago," Hiro shot back. "I'm not saying it's Callaghan. For all we know, he really is dead. I just don't think it's Krei. Something's not washing here. Right. Look at this," he said, spinning the laptop to face the others.

"'Krei Tech Under Attack'," Wasabi read the headline of the article Hiro had pulled up.

"That's right. It was all over the news. Several prominent Krei Tech employees have been found murdered over the last week. The most recent was Ruby Krei, Alistair's cousin," Rosie said. "The media's been mum about it, but I've been hearing things from the morgue. It looks like…"

"Like what?" GoGo pressed when the med student was unable to continue.

"Like these murders were committed with some sort of blade," she finished, a look of pain working its way across her face.

"So…so you think _Tadashi_ might be behind those murders?" Honey Lemon asked, eyes wide with horror.

"I'd say there's a definite possibility," Hiro said, keeping his emotions in check as he turned the laptop back in his direction to keep on working. "If Krei really is behind this, it'd be a little weird for him to send his new mercenary after his own people."

"Oh, God," Cass whispered as she leaned against the far wall of the room.

"So what are you thinking?" GoGo asked.

"I'm thinking I'm gonna get into Krei Tech's servers. See if we can't learn anything else about Project Silent Sparrow."

"You can do that?" Fred asked, clearly trying not to geek out.

"Sure. _That's_ easy. Only the fail kid geniuses go for breaking into corporations' secure systems these days. I'm not even-" Hiro's voice immediately broke off when he noticed he was receiving an email. Someone was sending a video message – someone _inside_ Krei Tech's system.

Hesitating for only a moment, Hiro opened the video file. He was greeted by a solemn-looking woman with strawberry blonde hair and deep green eyes.

"Hello. Whoever you are, if you're receiving this message, it means I'm no longer alive."

"Whoa, message from beyond the grave," Fred whispered.

"My name is Ruby Krei, and I programmed this message to send if someone should ever come seeking information on Project Silent Sparrow, and if that's what you're looking for, I don't suppose I have to tell you what happened. How Alistair's pet project failed…cataclysmically…and Abigail Callaghan was lost as a result."

"Callaghan," Hiro repeated slowly. "She…the pilot must have been related to Professor Callaghan somehow."

Ruby looked away from the camera for a moment, eyes blinking rapidly as they brightened with tears. Then she took a deep breath and turned her focus back to her unknown audience.

"The government shut down the project, had it sealed…but that wasn't the reason Alistair let go of it so easily. That was because…he knew what it did to me…to lose Abby. My cousin can be an ass sometimes, but he's not completely heartless. You see…Abby and I, we…Abby Callaghan was the love of my life," she said sadly, holding her hand up to the camera. A silver ring with a simple diamond graced her ring finger.

"Oh, no," Honey Lemon whispered.

"She asked me to marry her…the night before it happened. Even now, all these years later, I'm still wearing this ring. If I have any say in it, I'll be buried with it, y'know, when my body finally gets the memo. I _died_ that day," she said, her gaze briefly drifting off into the distance, but then she shook her head and looked back to the camera once again.

"I'm sorry. I'm getting off track here. I tried to go on after her death. What happened was _awful,_ but it was nobody's fault. Abby's father wouldn't let it go, though. Robert, he…he kept insisting it was Alistair's fault, and much as I also wanted to blame him…wanted to blame _someone_ …I knew it wasn't his fault. And Robert just _wouldn't stop,_ and when I wouldn't side with him, he said I wasn't worthy of Abby…that I'd never really loved her. I kept telling him to get help, but he wouldn't listen. I think I may be the only one who ever saw just how close to gone he was, and when he died in the fire at the SFIT showcase, I thought that would be the end of it, but it looks like I was wrong.

"People have been murdered…scientists who had key roles in the project. I'm afraid I might be next, and who would have reason to kill us but Robert Callaghan. I wouldn't blame him. After all, it was _my_ design that failed in the end. I wasn't smart enough…wasn't good enough. _I'm_ the one who failed to keep her safe, and I probably deserve whatever fate's coming my way. I can't go to the police with this. I've really got no proof he's alive, nothing but a gut feeling. The reason I'm sending this out is – and this is the _truly_ crazy part – I think Abby might still be alive."

"Whoa," Hiro breathed in amazement.

"I know it sounds crazy. The best people have been over the numbers and with the amount of force the containment breach was generating, it would have torn everything to shreds, but I've been over and over my own numbers and there's _no way_ that pod should have failed. If there's a way to cross back to that place, I think Abby might still be out there…trapped. I'm hoping I'll get the chance to test my theory on my own, but I'm also afraid my time might be running short. I've attached my designs to this message. If someone out there's intelligent enough to get into these databanks, I'm praying you'll prove me right. Please, look at the numbers. If I really am crazy, you can go back to your life, but…if there's even the slightest chance Abby might still be alive, please… _save her._ "

With that, the video feed cut off, leaving the room in shocked silence for several moments.

"So it _is_ Callaghan who's behind this," GoGo said quietly, a slight hint of anger entering her voice. " _He's_ the one who did this to Tadashi."

"But…she said she didn't have any _proof_ Callaghan was still alive," Wasabi pointed out.

"You heard her, though. Who else has a motive like his?" Fred asked. "We were wrong before. This is a revenge story."

"Ruby was guilt-ridden," Honey Lemon said, her own eyes bright with unshed tears. "She may have even been paranoid at the end."

"It makes sense," Hiro said, still staring at the computer screen, "but the only way we can prove Ruby Krei right is if we find Callaghan. Even if it isn't him, the only way we've got any chance of finding the person who did this to Tadashi is to get Baymax up and running again."

"But how do we do that if Tadashi erased his programming?" GoGo asked.

"There should be a backup in Tadashi's lab. I can get it for you if you like," Rosie told them.

"Wait, wait, wait! Hold up a sec'!" Cass snarled as she rejoined the conversation. "You can't possibly think I'm going to let you knuckleheads go out there again. You almost got yourselves killed last time! What if you're not so lucky the next time around? Huh?! What then?"

Hiro sighed heavily before looking up to meet his aunt's wild gaze. "Aunt Cass, you can try to stop me, you can forbid me to put the armor on again, but I think you and I both know that's not gonna do any good. My brother needs me…and I'm not gonna let him down again."

"But why does it have to be you?" Cass demanded, tears streaming down her face as she moved toward the hospital bed, gently cupping Hiro's cheek in her hand. "You're _fourteen years old._ You shouldn't have to handle this. I'm the adult here. _I'm_ supposed to protect _you_."

"I get that, but I'm the only one who _can_ handle this. _I_ made those microbots, and that's why this happened to Tadashi. With them he's practically unstoppable. This is _my fault._ I'm responsible, so I'm the one who's gotta make it right."

"But you're _hurt,_ " she argued weakly, even though he could see she was starting to understand.

"Well, if Rosie did her job right, I should be on my feet again pretty quick. I'll go easy, and if I get roughed up again, she can patch me up."

"That I can," Rosie said, nodding her agreement, though she did throw Hiro a warning look, reminding him of the conversation they'd had earlier.

"Dammit! _Dammit!_ " Cass hissed as she pulled him into a hug, crushing him gently against her chest. "I know why…but _why?_ " she whispered.

"Because Tadashi needs me. I've gotta help," Hiro answered. "I'm not gonna just leave him like this."

"He's not gonna be alone, Cass. We'll be out there with him," GoGo said. "We're all gonna help, too."

"That's right. We'll get Baymax _and_ Tadashi back," Honey Lemon declared.

"All right, all of you get in here before I change my mind," Cass demanded, waving them all in for a group hug. There were still tears on her face, but there was now a pained smile there, as well.

The other four would-be heroes moved in around Cass and Hiro, joining in on the hug. Rosie stood back, watching with a small smile of her own, feeling it wasn't really her place to intrude on the moment. They were all so caught up in the little hug, they didn't notice her slipping quietly out of the room.

XxX

Suri hadn't been to the robotics building since before Tadashi's death. The two of them had spent long hours in his lab coming up with necessary procedures and behaviors that

Baymax would need in order to function well. It was also the place Suri would sneak glances at Tadashi while he was working, the only time he wouldn't notice the way she stared. The idea of returning to the place where they'd spent such happy, busy hours had always been both painful and relieving to her, so she'd expected a jumble of emotions on entering the lab.

What she hadn't expected was to find the lab in complete shambles.

The window had been smashed and Tadashi's beloved workspace had been utterly trashed. Cabinets and furniture had been overturned and torn apart. Papers had been ripped up and strewn about. Worst of all, all of his computer equipment had been destroyed. Everything had been smashed to bits.

"No!" Suri cried out in despair as she rushed to the destroyed main terminal, falling to her knees among the broken computer parts. "No, no, no, no, no." All of Tadashi's work, everything that had been his, it had all been destroyed. She might have gone right on despairing had she not heard a subtle shift of fabric from behind her.

Suri spun around as she shot to her feet, coming face to face with the man in the kabuki mask. Yokai.

"Tadashi?" she whispered, unable to help taking a step forward in spite of her fear. In spite of all logic, everything she knew, and everything about this situation, she couldn't crush the hope that had been born in her heart. "Is it…really you?"

The masked figure stood still for a moment, just staring at her, but then he slipped off the mask and the face she knew was before her – scarred and ragged, but _alive,_ returned from death against all odds.

"Suri," he said softly as he moved slowly toward her. "Your name is Suri."

"That's right," she whispered, hardly daring to hope. "Do you remember me?"

Looking back on it, she didn't know why she let herself fall for it. Maybe she'd grieved for too long, missed him too much, _needed_ him too much. Whatever the case may have been, when he backed her against the wall, she didn't resist. She could only gaze into his eyes as he reached out to touch her face.

_Please…let this be real. Let him be alive. It's been so hard without him._

"Tadashi…please…don't be dead," she pleaded quietly as he ran a thumb along her bottom lip. Then he was leaning into her…pressing his lips against hers…and she was lost. When he plunged the small tanto blade into her side, he held her lips captive with his own, muffling her scream of pain with his own mouth.

"The wound isn't fatal," he murmured in her ear once she'd fallen silent, using her pain and shock to pin her wrists to the wall above her head. The tanto he left in her side. "I think you know that. I won't make him kill you, not right away. I want them to see what he's going to do to you…to know that he can do the unthinkable even to someone he once cared for. Maybe then they'll have the sense to stay out of my way."

"T- Tadashi," she whispered, confused and in pain. She was sure that if he weren't pinning her to the wall, she wouldn't be able to stand on her own. At first, she didn't understand why he was referring to himself in the third, but then it gelled…as if he were speaking for someone else. "C…Callaghan?"

"I suppose it wouldn't have been that hard to figure out. Yes. Tadashi is serving as my voice at the moment," he said, face completely blank as he pulled back from her. "You love him…don't you. Everyone but him could see that, and everyone but you could see how he cared for you."

"What?" she whispered in shock.

"Yes. He loved you, too. Did you know that? It took some…persuasion…but our Tadashi has shared _such secrets_ with me. It was _you_ he thought of in the dark, and _your name_ on his lips when he touched himself. He even did it right here in his lab, after you'd gone home one night…when he thought he was alone."

"Stop it," Suri hissed as she turned away, unable to look into Tadashi's unfeeling eyes as he spoke these words. "That's private. You have no right-"

"Nothing is private to me. Tadashi is mine. Any part of him that may have belonged to you is gone. Tell me, Suri…what have you spoken to the darkness? Where have those strong, sure surgeon's hands ventured in their quest to dream of his touch?" the former professor asked her through Tadashi's voice as the living weapon slipped a hand between her legs, keeping her wrists pinned with the other.

"Stop… _please, stop,_ " she begged, her chest seizing up with terror as he rubbed her through the cloth of her slacks. "Tadashi…it's _me._ "

"He was going to tell you, you know. He made a promise to himself. He was going to meet your flight from New Cairo and ask you to have dinner with him, and we all know how that story goes – marriage, children, a happy ending…the perfect life – except when it isn't how the story goes. My wife was a nurse. Did you know that? We met in college, too. The roboticist and the med student. I saw so much of us in the two of you. Whether or not you believe me, I'm doing you a favor in not letting that story go the same way again."

"You…you're _crazy!_ " she choked out, tears beginning to pour down her face as that hand continued to touch her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew she had no hope of reconciling this – the fierceness with which she'd ached for her friend's touch and the horror of what was now happening.

"At this point…probably, but I really just can't care anymore. If I did that, I'd have to kill myself for the things I've done. Tadashi would, too, I think. That's why I've done it this way, erased him so thoroughly. Wouldn't it be kinder to let him sleep, _not_ to wake him to the things he's done…what he's _about_ to do?"

"What _are_ you going to do?" she whispered, even though she knew. She had to have _Callaghan_ say it. There was no way she was going to allow the blame for her pain to fall on Tadashi's head.

"I've given him orders to rape you. He'll begin as soon as I've finished dictating, and if there's anything I can say for my Yokai…he is not gentle. You may survive long enough for the others to find you, but then with that injury, I very much doubt it. They'll see what he's capable of and they'll know there's no reclaiming him."

"If you really believe that…then you've forgotten what it's like to love someone," Suri said, voice hitching briefly in pain. "We won't let you…do this to him."

"After all this time…maybe I have forgotten, and if you'll forgive me the cliché, it seems to me I've already done it. Yokai will bring my vengeance down on Alistair Krei, and there's nothing any of you can do about it. The robot's secret will die with you."

"What are you talking about?" Suri asked, but there was no response. Tadashi's mouth snapped shut and his cold brown eyes stared unfeelingly down at her as the hand that had been fondling her reached up to tear open her slacks.

"Tadashi…please… _don't do this,_ " she pleaded with tears streaming down her face, forcing herself to look into those eyes. There was nothing, not even the tiniest hint of recognition as he started to force the black fabric down her legs. This was really going to happen, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. No matter how much she struggled, he would still be stronger than her.

"We're friends, Tadashi. We worked together. I…you can't… _oh, God!_ " she shrieked in agony when he twisted the dagger still embedded in her side. She screamed, but no one came. There was no one to hear, not this late at night. She was alone…alone with something out of a nightmare. She couldn't help but tremble in fear when she felt his breath hot against her neck. But then, when he reached to undo his own pants, she felt his grip on her hands loosen for a moment. Just a moment…

Realizing it might be her only chance to get away, she twisted a hand free of his grasp and reached for the only weapon she had – the tanto still in her body. A small arc of crimson followed the blade through the air as she brought it up, slashing at Tadashi's face.

Tadashi snarled in pain as the blade bit deep, slashing from the bridge of his nose down to just below his right ear, bisecting the recent scar. He stumbled back several feet, clutching at the wound as Suri crawled away, gripping the tanto tightly against her chest.

The pain didn't keep Tadashi distracted for long, though. Before Suri had managed to crawl to the door, he was pinning her down again, forcing her slacks the rest of the way off. Then he wrenched the tanto from her grasp, tossing it away. When he lowered his face to hers, blood seeped from the fresh wound down onto her cheek, mixing with her tears. Sobs choked her throat as he pressed his body down harshly against hers.

"Tadashi…please… _no._ "

" _Tadashi!_ " a new voice suddenly shouted. Both looked up to see GoGo standing in the doorway, brandishing the discarded tanto. "Get away from her!"

Tadashi said nothing. He just stood and quickly put himself back in order before drawing his katana, dropping into a challenging stance.

"Help her," GoGo said to the two who stood behind her as she and Tadashi began to circle each other. Fred and Honey Lemon quickly moved in to pull Suri to the far side of the lab. Fumbling clumsily with her lab coat, she pulled it closed in an attempt to cover herself.

"Tadashi," the much smaller woman started warningly as they continued to circle, "we've been friends since middle school. Don't think that doesn't mean anything to me, but I swear, if you touch her again, I'll take _both_ your hands off."

GoGo kept her cool, in spite of the fact that she knew she didn't stand much chance against a katana with one little bitty tanto. She'd had her fair share of street and knife fights and she knew the odds weren't in her favor this time, but she sure as fuck wasn't going to let Tadashi hurt the woman he'd been head over heals for for the last year. She'd just have to stay alive until a better opportunity presented itself.

Still Tadashi didn't respond to anything she said. He just continued to circle, assessing. He wasn't like the back alley punks who would try to intimidate her. He was cold and calculating. This was unlike the handful of times she'd sparred with him before. Robert Callaghan had made Tadashi Hamada a killer.

When Tadashi finally came at her with the sword, she nimbly sidestepped the attack, quickly redirecting the force of his next blow with a guard from the tanto. She wasn't able to play the dodge game long before he caught up with her, though. When she didn't move fast enough, his swipe caught her shoulder, causing her to grunt in pain as she went down.

"GoGo!" Honey Lemon cried out.

The moment she hit the ground, GoGo rolled to the side, avoiding Tadashi's next strike. She wasn't able to move into position to block fast enough, though, and his next swing knocked the tanto from her grip. His next swipe may well have taken her head off if a purple and red blur hadn't chosen that exact moment to smash headlong into the mercenary.

"Tadashi, _stop!_ " Hiro shouted as he tackled his brother to the floor.

"Hiro, no! What are you doing?" Suri cried out, trying to move toward her patient, but Fred held her back as the two brothers fought. Wasabi was only moments behind in his own gear, but before he could interfere, Tadashi flipped the kabuki mask back into place and a swarm of microbots burst through the broken window, completely surrounding the two Hamadas and sweeping them straight out into the open air.

" _HIRO!_ "

XxX

Hiro hadn't even waited for Aunt Cass to forbid him to go when Wasabi had received the call from Honey Lemon that Tadashi was in the robotics lab. Before either of them could tell him not to go, he'd been out of the ward and into the supply closet where the others had stashed their gear. He didn't really remember putting his armor on, or running to Tadashi's lab, but then he found himself standing in the doorway watching his brother about to kill his best friend. He hadn't thought. He'd acted, throwing himself at Tadashi, despite his injuries. He fought on through the sudden snap of pain in his ribs, grappling desperately with his brother. He couldn't let him kill anyone else. He just _couldn't!_ He hardly even noticed when they were swept out the window.

He continued to fight with Tadashi, mindless of where the microbots carried them. He fought until Tadashi delivered a particularly harsh blow to his damaged ribcage, leaving him screaming in mindless agony. Using the distraction to his advantage, Tadashi pinned him to an alley wall with the microbots. Hiro tried to fight back, but even uninjured, he knew he'd be no match for the swarm of bots.

"Tadashi," he called out weakly to the masked figure standing before him. "Come on, man. It's _me._ Hiro. It's your brother. Don't you know me?"

Tadashi didn't respond this time. He just raised the mask and stood staring at him. Hiro let his head droop in despair, hanging limply in the microbots' grasp.

"Dammit. Dammit! Why don't you know me?" he whispered, feeling tears slide down his face. The pain in his body was awful, but it had no hope of matching the pain in his heart. What Baymax had done was minor, a graze, but having _Tadashi_ look right at him and not know him – that was mortal.

"Yokai no longer recognizes friend or enemy," a horribly familiar voice announced as its owner entered the alley. "He recognizes targets. He is a weapon to be used at his creator's will, and a weapon cannot feel. It cannot love. Tadashi is gone from you. You would do best to go on believing he died in the fire that night. Your brother is _dead,_ Hiro. Forget about him."

Hiro slowly drew his head up to look at the man he'd once respected and admired, looked up to, maybe even hoped to be like someday. He hadn't changed much since Hiro had last seen him, only now he was dressed in a similar outfit to Tadashi's, and whatever pretense at humanity had once been in his eyes was now gone. As he gazed into the former professor's cold eyes, Hiro Hamada felt a spark of pure _rage_ ignite in his heart.

"Callaghan."


	6. Try to Picture Me Without You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'd say I got this one ready in a timely fashion. It's not all torture this time. There's a little H/C. I should mention, though, that I know nothing about coding, so Tadashi's dialogue could have some kinks in it, but I hope you all still find it enjoyable.

"Yes," Callaghan said quietly as he surveyed him up and down. "I'd hoped you wouldn't have to be involved in this, Hiro, but you just couldn't leave well enough alone."

" _CALLAGHAN!_ " Hiro screamed, his struggle against his creations renewed. " _He trusted you!_ _I_ trusted you! Tadashi trusted you…and _this_ is what you do to him?! _I'll kill you!_ "

"I don't doubt that you would. I'd expect nothing less after what I've done, but Hiro, at your age there really are things you just can't understand."

" _Understand?_ The first word I heard out of any of you was _understand!_ If there's something that makes what you've done to Tadashi all right, I don't _want_ to understand!" Hiro snarled.

"All right? No…never all right. Necessary? Absolutely. What I've done is evil; I have no illusions about it, but it _had_ to be done," Callaghan explained as he paced back and forth before him. All the while, Tadashi stood back, just staring vacantly at him.

" _Why?_ " Hiro demanded, angry tears pouring down his face as his gaze darted between Callaghan and Tadashi. "Why did it have to be him? They're _my_ microbots. Why couldn't you have just taken _me_ instead?"

Callaghan shook his head at the question. "Just as a start, you aren't nearly strong enough. I needed your brother's strength and skill for this task. More over, it seemed prudent to keep your mind intact incase there should be…any sort of trouble with the microbots."

"Mind…intact…?" Hiro mumbled in faint shock before the rage took over again, causing him to throw himself even more forcefully against the swarm that held him. He actually managed to get an arm free before they got hold of him again. " _HOW CAN YOU_ _ **SAY**_ _THAT?!_ "

"Because it's true. I'm sorry, but it is. You see, Hiro, I've been watching you and Tadashi for years. When I lost Abigail…I knew then that when it came time to seek justice for her, it would be Tomeo Hamada's boys who would help me fight for her."

"T- Tomeo? You…knew my dad?" Hiro heard himself asking. Of all the things he'd been expecting Callaghan to say, that had not been one of them.

"Very well. Who do you think was the terror of SFIT before your brother's crowd came along? Heh, we were such idealists back in the day," the former professor said with a bitter laugh. "Did you know that Silent Sparrow was your father's creation?"

"What are you talking about?" Hiro hissed, glaring at Callaghan through narrowed eyes.

"I mean he came up with the concept. He showed me the plans a long time before anyone at Krei Tech was talking about them. In fact, I'm afraid that may be what got him and Marie killed."

"That…that's ridiculous," Hiro said, shaking his head. "They died in a car crash."

"Yes, and the truck driver who smashed into them was never identified. Even now, he's lying in a morgue somewhere as a John Doe. Someone inside Krei Tech ordered a hit on your father."

"What?"

"I was never able to learn who. Those arrogant bastards were stupid enough to think I wouldn't recognize my own best friend's designs. I was on the verge of a breakthrough…but then they selected Abigail as their test pilot. She didn't know…that they stole Tomeo's design. She was just so excited to be a part of the project…and like an _idiot_ I let her go that day. I suppose some part of me was still an optimist…eager to see Tomeo's tech succeed…but then I lost everything," he said, broad shoulders slumping in misery.

"You don't…blame my dad for that, do you?" Hiro couldn't stop himself asking, wondering if maybe _that_ was why he had chosen Tadashi for this.

"No, no, no, of course not. If Tomeo had been the one to see this project through to completion, I have no doubt Abigail would've been completely safe. Her death is on Krei cutting corners with your father's design. The reason I've been watching the two of you is that I knew Tomeo's sons would help me take down Krei if they knew the truth. I also knew it would be one of you who came up with the tech that could bring him down. After all, with your parents being who they were, how could the two of you not be brilliant," Callaghan said as he moved back toward Tadashi, resting a hand on his shoulder. Still Tadashi didn't react. He just stood, still as a statue, staring silently.

"But…if you thought we'd help you willingly…why did you do this to Tadashi?" Hiro demanded, still struggling against the microbots.

"I didn't tell Tadashi the truth because I didn't want to risk that I might not be able to control his descent into Yokai. The thing about your brother, Hiro, is that he has reserves of untapped anger hidden inside that white knight front he puts on. I first noticed it when he was a child. I knew that if I told him the truth, he would become like me – angry, hell-bent on vengeance. After living with it for so many years, I knew I didn't want that fate for Tomeo's son."

"And this is somehow _better?_ " Hiro shouted. "Twisting him until he isn't even _human_ anymore?"

"Yes, it _is_ better," Callaghan said firmly. "This way, he will not have to suffer what must be done. He can kill and injure without conscience. Whether or not he's aware of it, he's already avenged your parents' deaths, and rather than having to live with the things Yokai has done, when this is all over, the two of us can go to our deaths peacefully," Callaghan explained, his grip on Tadashi visibly tightening.

" _What?_ You mean when you're done with him, you're just going to…throw him away?" Hiro asked, feeling anger and horror roiling in his stomach in equal measure.

"They say that when you go for revenge, you must dig two graves. In this case, it will be three. Tadashi will serve his purpose, then he will sleep. Like Abigail…like Tomeo…like _you_ if you get in our way."

" _NO!_ " Hiro snarled. "I'm not scared of you, Callaghan! You already took my brother from me once. I am _not_ gonna let you do it again! I _will_ save Tadashi, no matter what!"

Again, Callaghan slowly shook his head. Then he moved back toward him, getting right up in his face. "Hiro, Hiro, Hiro…did it not occur to you that it's _because_ of you Tadashi is like this?"

Swallowing painfully, Hiro briefly turned his face away from Callaghan. The former professor had hit on his exact fear, but he knew he couldn't let that deter him now. "It…it did occur to me."

"I did have faith in you, but perhaps you could have gone your whole life without inventing tech I could use. If _you_ hadn't invented these microbots, Tadashi would be perfectly fine right now – nearly finished with his education at SFIT, maybe dating Suri, in talks with some corporation to mass produce a Baymax line…on the way to a very bright future. If not for you, your brother would have been able to live a good life. If you didn't exist…" Callaghan said softly, voice strangely soothing as he lifted the helmet from Hiro's head.

"Stop it," Hiro hissed as tears continued to stream from his eyes. He couldn't bring himself to look at Callaghan.

"Stop what? Telling you things you already know? Because you _do_ know this," Callaghan hissed in his ear. "This – _all_ of this – is because of _you._ "

"Please…just stop," Hiro begged.

"All that guilt, all that hate and rage, and nowhere to turn it but inwards. I wonder, Hiro, are you really any better than I am?"

" _I said STOP IT!_ " Hiro screamed, throwing himself against the microbots one last time before going limp in their grasp.

Callaghan laughed quietly as he took a step back from him. "So _weak_. Nothing but a child. Yokai, subdue him."

Without even blinking, Tadashi let the microbots fall in a useless mass. Then he sprang forward and delivered another harsh blow to Hiro's damaged ribs. Screaming in agony, the young genius immediately collapsed, unable to move for the pain.

"Now tell him the truth," Callaghan ordered. "Tell him what you are."

"I'm not Tadashi," the mercenary said coldly. "Your brother died ten hours ago. I am the fleeting rage that Tadashi left behind in this world. I am nothing more than a weapon fashioned by Robert Callaghan from his lifeless body."

"No," Hiro sobbed, searching desperately for some sign of his brother in the dead eyes of the man standing over him. "It can't be…I don't believe that."

"You don't? You don't believe he'd cut your throat and leave you bleeding if I ordered him to?" Callaghan asked. At his words, Tadashi drew his katana, laying it threateningly across Hiro's exposed throat. "He will."

"Nii-chan…please," Hiro whispered. "It's _me._ I'm your _brother._ "

"Not anymore," Callaghan said as he motioned for Tadashi to step back, coming to kneel beside Hiro. "I want you to understand just what it is I've done. I want you to see how meaningless your vow is. This will show you everything you need to see," he said, pressing a flash drive into his unresponsive hand. "I should kill you, but I suppose some part of me still remembers what a good man Tomeo was. He deserves to leave at least one son behind in this world. But this will be the last warning you receive. Stay out of my way. Leave Tadashi to me. If you interfere again, I will have no choice but to order him to put his blade through your heart. Come, Yokai," he ordered as he got to his feet and began to walk out of the alley.

"Tadashi…" Hiro called out faintly. "I'm not…giving up on you."

For a moment, Tadashi looked back at him, expression as stoic as ever. Then he shook his head and flipped the kabuki mask back into place. Callaghan didn't turn back to him when he spoke.

"You should. This time Tadashi Hamada has died, and he will stay dead _forever._ "

Then they were gone – and Hiro was alone. When Wasabi came upon him several minutes later, he was lying where he'd fallen, staring blankly up at the sky as tears continued to trickle down his face.

"My fault…my fault… _my fault!_ "

XxX

After Wasabi had left to go after Hiro and Tadashi, Fred had left to get suited up in case they needed help. That had left GoGo and Honey Lemon to help Suri redress. She was still bleeding pretty badly and the pair had briefly talked about calling 911, but Suri had loudly talked them down, insisting she could take care of her own injuries. They just had to help her back to the med tech building while keeping pressure on the wound.

While GoGo and Honey Lemon worked to calm Cass down, Suri worked on getting herself patched up, steadfastly refusing to think about what had just happened.

The stab wound was easy enough to treat. Nothing vital had been pierced. It was just a matter of cleaning the wound and closing it with skin glue and a bandage. She knew she would have done better to remove her lab coat and cami, but for some reason, she just couldn't stomach the thought of removing her clothes. So she'd done everything with the coat pulled back and the cami rolled up, focusing on the doctoring and _not_ on the memory of the feel of Tadashi's skin against hers…or the way his cold gaze had shot her straight through the heart-

"What did he mean?" she asked herself sharply, forcing herself away from the memory as she paced her work space, even though she knew she should be sitting down. She knew she was experiencing symptoms of shock, but she couldn't let herself think about why that was.

" _I want them to see what he's going to do to you…to know that he can do the unthinkable even to someone he once cared for."_

"What did you mean?" she demanded, violently thrusting the memory away and picking up one of her rose plants and burying her nose in the petals, breathing in the familiar fragrance. He'd said something about…the robot's secret. Baymax.

" _He loved you, too. Did you know that?"_

"What did you mean?" she continued to press, beginning to squeeze the peach-colored blossom in a tight fist. He thought she knew something about Baymax, but what? She didn't know a damn thing about coding. That was Tadashi's area. What could she possibly know that could be of any threat to him?

" _Tadashi is mine. Any part of him that may have belonged to you is gone. Tell me, Suri…what have you spoken to the darkness? Where have those strong, sure surgeon's hands ventured in their quest to dream of his touch?"_

" _What did you mean?!_ " she shouted, feeling a sudden sharp prick in her thumb, which caused her to cry out and drop the plant. The pot shattered on impact with the floor, scattering rose petals and potting soil everywhere. Suri glanced briefly at her hand, seeing the small well of blood where she'd caught herself on a thorn.

"Suri?" a shocked voice whispered, drawing the young surgeon's gaze. Cass was standing in the doorway.

"Cass. I…I…" she mumbled uselessly, searching for an explanation that just wouldn't come.

"Oh…oh, sweetheart," she said softly, moving around the mess on the floor and coming to hug her, pressing her head down against her chest and stroking her hair. That did it. The tears and the horror she'd been holding back began to trickle forward again.

"Why? Why Tadashi?" she cried quietly as Cass held her. "He was so wonderful. I…I _loved him!_ "

"I know, baby. I know," Cass soothed. "He loved you, too…I know he did…so much. I used to catch him staring when you came to the café…or daydreaming when he should have been doing dishes."

Suri laughed quietly through her tears, hugging Tadashi's aunt tighter. "Tadashi…Tadashi…he was such a good person. Why did this have to happen to him?" She still loved him. Of _course_ she did. Nothing Robert Callaghan could do could change that…but that didn't mean that something in her hadn't been broken by what had happened.

"Suri…I'm so sorry," Cass cried with her. "I'm sorry this happened to you. I'd give anything if it would mean we could go back."

"He let me go," she whispered suddenly, looking up at Cass.

"Wh- what?"

"Tadashi isn't the one who did this. It was only for a moment, but he loosened his grip. _He_ let me go. Tadashi's still in there somewhere, Cass. I _know_ he is," she said, drawing herself back into a standing position. Whatever Cass was about to say in response, though, was interrupted.

"Rosie?" a tiny, defeated voice called out. The two women looked to the door to see Hiro standing there, flanked by Fred and Wasabi. Hiro dropped his helmet to the floor before beginning to strip off other pieces of his armor.

"What happened?" Cass demanded as they both raced toward the boys.

"Ta- Tadashi roughed me up a bit. I'm fine," Hiro mumbled. "I can still walk on my own."

"Now I think you know we won't believe that until we get you under an x-ray. What did you-" Suri's rundown was suddenly interrupted when the boy threw his arms around her, clinging to her like she was the last solid thing in the world. Confused, Suri slowly wrapped her own arms around his trembling shoulders. "Hiro?"

"I'm sorry!" Hiro sobbed as he buried his face in her chest. "I'm sorry."

"Hiro, what…what are you talking about?" Suri asked him, doing for him just what Cass had done for her, stroking his hair and rubbing his back. "Why are you sorry?"

"I'm s-sorry for…for what happened to you. Sorry…sorry I was a s-stupid little k-kid…and I didn't know my brother was c-crushing so h-hard. I'm sorry…you t-two never…got to go out on a date. I'm sorry he hurt you," he cried, moving a hand back to touch the bandage on her midsection. "It's my fault. It's _my fault,_ " he choked out.

"Oh…oh, Hiro, no. Of _course_ it's not your fault. Tadashi and I…we were both idiots. We could've…any time…and…what happened to me…that's on Callaghan. He _used_ you, no different from the way he's using Tadashi. Do you hear me, Hiro Hamada?" she demanded, lifting his chin up to look him in the eye. " _None of this_ is your fault."

Suri thought she saw a spark of relief in his eyes, but Hiro didn't say anything to acknowledge he'd understood her. Instead he buried his face in her chest again and just cried, and she let him. She held him in her arms and let him cry until he had no more tears left.

XxX

Once Rosie had made certain Hiro hadn't seriously reinjured himself, the others all dispersed to the various hospital cots they'd been sleeping in, anxious to get some kind of rest after the day's harrowing events. Aunt Cass had been sleeping in a chair in his recovery room, and even though he'd tried to argue, she continued to do so. Once he was sure she was asleep, Hiro retrieved the borrowed laptop and Callaghan's flash drive and crept with them back to the robotics building – back to Tadashi's ruined lab.

No one would tell him exactly what had occurred between Tadashi and Rosie in this room, but he had a sinking feeling he knew what it was. It was something Tadashi would never forgive himself for, and there were no doubt many such things by now. Hiro was afraid to dig deeper, but he knew he had to. To turn away from Tadashi's suffering would be an act of betrayal and nothing less.

He hadn't told any of the others about the flash drive. Whatever was contained on it, he knew it was meant for him alone, and he would have to face it alone. So, settling in among the rubble of his brother's life's work, Hiro booted up the laptop, inserted the drive into the port, and accessed the video files contained on it.

The first video showed Tadashi bound to a chair, and Hiro had to watch as Callaghan made his brother live through every moment of his grief for him. When he realized that Tadashi had had to watch him almost commit suicide, he nearly stopped the video. What that must have _done_ to him…

There were images of Tadashi undergoing physical torture – blades, shock treatments, acid, fire, drugs – he was torn apart and put back together over and over again. As horrible as it was to witness, it was nothing compared to what Callaghan did to his mind.

He forced Tadashi to watch clones of his family and friends murdered, images created using the microbots paired with holographic technology. Over and over they died horrifically in front of him – Aunt Cass, GoGo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Fred, Rosie, and Hiro himself – and when that had ceased to be effective, Callaghan had repeated the process with Tadashi under the influence of strong hallucinogens, until he could no longer distinguish the lies from reality.

Through drugs and hypnosis, he forced Tadashi to relive the night their parents died, suggesting to his already unhinged mind that maybe there was more he could have done to save them. He induced other delusions – Hiro murdered by Krei Tech, Rosie gunned down by insurrectionists in New Cairo…everything he'd ever loved destroyed, and somehow it always seemed to be his fault.

On and on it went, hour after hour, a macabre slideshow of torture and horror, on and on, until Hiro was a weeping mess on the lab floor, until he knew he would take the sound of Tadashi screaming with him to the grave, and still he forced himself to watch, never looking away from the torment inflicted on his brother because of his invention. Tadashi had received no mercy. Why should he?

Callaghan broke Tadashi down, stripping away the layers of his strength until he was willing to do almost anything to avoid the pain. When the horrifying stream of footage finally came to an end, it was with Tadashi willingly murdering a microbot copy of Hiro…willingly allowing the former professor to erase what remained of his memory in order to escape the horror of it. When Hiro finally ejected the drive from the laptop, it took all of his control not to smash the evil thing against the floor.

The first hints of sunrise were just beginning to glimmer through the shattered window when Hiro slid the laptop and flash drive away from himself, knowing he would destroy them both if he let himself. Curling in on himself, he gripped at his arms until he felt his nails break skin. Once he'd managed to choke down the horror of what he'd seen, he found it was replaced with hatred in his gut, churning until it threatened to overtake him completely. Hate was rebuilding his world – bitter, black, boiling hate pumping from his heart, teaching him how to breathe all over again. Lying curled up on the floor of the ruins of Tadashi's life, there was a moment Hiro really thought he might _die_ with all the hate in his veins.

But no. He couldn't die yet – not while the man who had murdered his brother still breathed. Maybe Callaghan was right. Maybe there _was_ no saving Tadashi from the Hell he'd cast him into, but that didn't mean Hiro wasn't going to sacrifice everything he was trying, and if he failed…if he failed, they would all burn together.

Hiro didn't know how long he lay there making himself bleed, but all the while he whispered to himself. "I'll kill you. I'll kill you. _I'll kill you!_ "

And in the end, he had no idea if he meant Callaghan…or himself.

XxX

After the others had gone to sleep, Suri retreated to her lab once more. Hiro's words about her and Tadashi had made her think…about one last avenue that hadn't been tried, one hope that might still be left.

During her residency training, she and Tadashi had kept in touch via video messages. Phone service and internet hadn't always been the best in some of the areas she'd worked in, so it had just been easier to send pre-recorded videos to each other than to attempt any sort of direct video chatting. It was small talk, little happenings of their day-to-day lives on opposite ends of the globe, but it was the little things that had made her feel closer to him. He'd sent her his last message the morning of the explosion. She hadn't seen the email in her inbox until after she'd heard the news, and by then she just couldn't bear to look at it. She hadn't been able to bring herself to watch Tadashi's last message to her. To know that they would be the last words he would ever speak to her, that she would never see his face or hear his voice ever again…the knowledge was just too painful. So she'd left the email unopened, pending some time in the future when the thought of him didn't feel like a fresh stab to her heart. But that time had never come and now Tadashi had been replaced with Yokai.

However, if Callaghan had been pulling information from Tadashi and he wanted her killed for it, perhaps it meant that there was something about this last message that Tadashi had known…something that might help them restore Baymax. So, shivering with both trepidation and longing, Suri logged into her email and opened the long unread message.

As she'd hoped, the set of files Tadashi had sent her that last morning was much larger than normal. She couldn't pretend to understand any of what she saw, so instead of trying to make sense of it, she went to the one file she did recognize – the video he'd made for her.

When she opened the video file, it was to the sight of Tadashi looking sleep-deprived, but so very excited at the same time.

"Hey, Suri," he greeted, waving at the camera with a goofy grin on his face. "Sorry I haven't messaged you in a few weeks. It's been crazy over here. I've been helping Hiro with his project for the showcase. I don't want to spoil anything here. You're gonna have to wait to see it in person, but I promise you, it's gonna blow your mind. Hiro's really gonna go places with this tech," he said, face glowing with pride for his younger brother. Already, Suri could feel fresh tears pricking at her eyes. Tadashi loved Hiro so much…and Yokai had almost killed him. If those eyes smiling at her from this frozen moment in time had only known what was to come…

"I seriously can't wait for you two to meet. I think you'll get along really well. Hiro's finally met the rest of the gang. They love him, of course. GoGo actually had this awful joke about not knowing him since, y'know, we hardly ever saw him around anymore…always off bot fighting," he said, expression darkening briefly before the smile returned. "Y'know, I still can't believe your reverse psychology idea worked, hooked him right in. Yeah, I know reverse psychology's not the actual term, but have pity on us mortals. I don't talk coding with you, do I?"

Suri laughed quietly as tears trickled down her face. He did sometimes, no different than when she sometimes got a little too in depth with the medical jargon.

"Anyway, the showcase is tonight. I know Hiro's gonna blow everyone else out of the water. Nobody's worried about that…except maybe him, but I just wanted to get these schematics off to you before I'm unavailable for the rest of the day. I updated Baymax's master programming set and I just wanted you to have a look at the groupings, make sure everything's still in order."

Suri couldn't quite help wincing at the memory of the extensive list of files that had been attached to the email. What had Tadashi expected her to do with all that?

"And I can already feel you wincing over there, you big baby. You don't have to worry about the coding. Just edit the subheadings for me and make sure they'll all still function together. I _know_ you can handle that. Baymax is…he's amazing, Suri. I can't wait for you to see him. You and me…we really did something special here. I'm proud of us. We're gonna celebrate the minute you get back here," he said, something in his smile shifting.

"Hey, Tadashi," GoGo called out, suddenly appearing on camera. "You don't have the duct tape do you?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. Left of the window," he said, nodding over his shoulder.

"What are _you_ working on?" she asked as she crossed behind him, though her tone indicated she already knew.

"Just…making a video for Suri," Tadashi answered, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. "And now I don't have time to edit you out. I have to get gone the minute I send this off."

"Oh, good. Won't say anything you'll regret then. Hi, Rosie!" she called before heading out. "Tadashi, man, if you don't tap that, I _swear_ I will."

"GoGo!" Tadashi snarled viciously after his childhood friend, but she'd already disappeared. His face had gone an alarming shade of red when he turned back to the camera. "She…she's joking, of course she's joking. You know GoGo. I think we…all know she prefers blondes anyway. God, I can't believe I said that," he groaned, running a hand through his hair in clear frustration. "But…she's not totally wrong. I know it's still another two weeks before you get back…but there's something I want to talk to you about when you get in. It's just…it's not something I can say in one of these videos. I need to tell you in person. So…two weeks. I can't wait to see you again, Suri. You don't know how much I've missed you. Stay safe. Don't you _dare_ die before I see you again," he finished, pressing a few fingers to the camera before the video stopped, leaving him frozen with that nervous smile on his face.

"Oh…Tadashi," Suri whispered, nearly choking on her tears. Without really thinking, she reached out a hand to press her fingers against his, feeling nothing but the cold glass of the screen beneath them. She could finally see it. In this last video, she could see what she never had before…what he'd meant to say to her. Callaghan hadn't been lying. She'd meant just as much to him as he did to her…and he was going to tell her. "I _didn't_ die. I promised you I wouldn't. Why did you? _Tadashi_ …"

She didn't know how long she sat there crying, loving and despairing, but in the midst of all those tangled emotions there was also a strand of happiness. If she'd understood him correctly, she now had Baymax's primary programming at her fingertips. Callaghan was right to fear. Hiro would be able to use this to get Baymax up and running again.

There might still be hope for Tadashi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...who wants to see how Tadashi's taking all this?


	7. Your Wound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, you all wanted to see how Tadashi was doing. But first, I think we'll see what's happening with a few other members of our team.

GoGo didn't know about the others, but when she lay down on the hospital cot, she found she was too tired to sleep – too tired, heartsick, and angry. Even though she'd caught small snatches of sleep over the last few days, she felt like she hadn't slept since before Akuma Island. Heartsick for Hiro, Tadashi, and Rosie – that she'd had to walk into that lab and find Yokai defiling the woman Tadashi loved.

The only way she could stand to think about it was to consider Yokai and Tadashi as separate beings, because Yokai was _not_ Tadashi. Tadashi wouldn't set Baymax on Hiro, and Tadashi would _never_ do something so unthinkable to Rosie. Tadashi Hamada, whom she'd seen through many crushes, and had watched fall in love with Suri Avicenna – the boy who'd been her friend through her one and only boyfriend and who had stuck with her as she'd come to terms with the fact that she liked girls.

No. That man would never treat love so _shamefully._ Yokai was not him. Yokai was an enemy who wore the face of her best friend. Unlike the rest of her friends, she was not unfamiliar with having enemies. She knew how to fight, how to defend herself. She knew what it was like to have someone come at you with the intent of killing you, and more and more she found herself fearing that if none of the others proved able to do what might _need_ to be done…that it would fall to _her_.

Honey Lemon, Wasabi, and Fred couldn't even be expected to kill a spider, let alone put a sword or a bullet through an actual person. Hiro _might_ be able to kill, but to expect him to do it to his own brother…no. There was no way that was going to happen…no way she was going to _let_ it happen. Ultimately, if they couldn't pull Tadashi back from the raging storm that was Yokai, she knew it would fall to her to put Yokai down for good – to _kill_ the man who had been her best friend in order to save him from what he had become.

The more she thought about it, the more she found her thoughts drifting back to the look she'd seen on Rosie's face when they'd burst into the lab – the despair and horror that had filled her normally gentle blue eyes. She remembered the look in Tadashi's eyes back on the island for that brief moment he'd awoken to what he'd done – the knowledge that he'd hurt his own brother. She remembered the heartbreak on Ruby Krei's face as she held up the engagement ring that would forever remain just that. Even further back, she remembered when Rosie had come to see her after getting back from New Cairo – how she'd poured out her heart, telling her all of the things she'd felt for Tadashi now that she'd never be able to tell him herself.

Rosie's words had made her think about things she would've rather not, and with everything that was happening, those thoughts were beginning to creep up on her again. The way her heart had dropped into her stomach the day Tadashi had introduced her to Honey Lemon – less like the start of a good rollercoaster and more like the ground had been pulled out from under her feet. How she was _never_ shy about her interests when it came to getting a girl between the sheets, but how she'd _known_ it would be different with Honey Lemon if she ever chose to intrude on the boundaries of their friendship. How she and Tadashi had constantly teased each other about never making a move. How so many people had gone to their deaths with so much left unsaid. What would happen to her? Would she look death in the face and know she'd never told Honey-

"GoGo?" the other girl's gentle but worried voice suddenly intruded on her thoughts. "Are you awake?"

Rolling over on her cot, GoGo looked through the semi-darkness to see the blonde bane of her existence standing in the doorway. She knew that dawn couldn't be all that far off, but there was still some measure of darkness to hide in.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?" she asked, slowly sitting up.

"Not so much, no," the chemist said, looking guilty as she entered the room. "I've been worried."

"About what?"

"About you," she said quietly as she came to her, fingers brushing lightly along the bandage that now covered her right shoulder. "Are you doing all right?"

"Doesn't hurt much," she said gruffly, attempting to brush it off. "It's pretty shallow…and Rosie got me patched up. You don't have to worry about me."

"But I do. I did. I was so…" she struggled to explain as she sat down beside her. "I really thought he was going to kill you, GoGo."

"Nah. If it was that easy, someone else would've got me a long time ago. I can handle myself. Really," she tried to reassure her, but the fear in the taller girl's eyes didn't seem to be easing up even a little bit.

"It isn't…that I don't believe you, GoGo," she said, beginning to reach a hand forward to touch her cheek before seeming to think better of it. Instead, her hand fell to rest on GoGo's knee. "It's just…it scared me. I don't know what I would do if you died. Wind up just like Rosie, I guess," she said, gripping her knee a little tighter.

"Honey…" GoGo murmured softly, feeling a tremor pass through her body at the sudden intensity of her grip. If Honey Lemon was saying what she _thought_ she was saying…

"GoGo, I'm not- not looking for anything from you. I just…so much has happened…I want to tell you the truth. You don't have to do anything with it. I just want you to know how I feel…in case we don't come through this."

GoGo didn't give her a chance to finish. Before she could talk herself out of it or lose her nerve, she closed the already minimal distance between them and pressed her lips firmly against Honey Lemon's.

The other girl gasped faintly into the kiss, but she didn't pull back. GoGo felt her tremble as she gripped her shoulders tightly. Honey Lemon's grip also tightened noticeably as her hand moved from her knee to her inner thigh. As much as she ached to deepen the kiss, she was also content to stay right here in this moment forever, feeling the softness of Honey Lemon's lips against hers.

_Is this real? Can this really be happening to me?_

When the pair finally separated for air, they both just sat where they were, eyes closed, enjoying the lingering taste. When GoGo finally opened her eyes, it was to the sight of Honey Lemon's enraptured face.

"What…what was that…you were saying?" she somehow got herself to ask, reaching a hand up to trace her bottom lip with her thumb. When Honey's eyes finally blinked open, there was an intoxicated smile on her face.

"I…I…"

GoGo might have kissed her again had Wasabi not chosen that exact moment to stick his head in the door.

"GoGo, you-"

The two young women immediately leapt apart at the sound of his voice, jerking to opposite ends of the cot.

"Wasabi," GoGo ground out in frustration.

"Oh, no," Wasabi started, a look of understanding immediately spreading across his face. "Oh, no, no, no, _no!_ Don't tell me it finally happened! It finally happened and I just interrupted the friggin' moment. Shoot!" he growled, banging his head lightly against the doorframe. "Look, guys, under any other circumstances, I'd shut the door and keep walking, but…Hiro and Rosie have got something. They need all of us. It's time to go to work."

XxX

The first thing Hiro had realized upon gathering enough of his composure to leave Tadashi's lab was that they needed to move somewhere safer. The video files had shown him that, at the very least, Callaghan had their home and several places on the SFIT campus bugged. Given how closely Tadashi and Rosie had worked, there were likely places in the med tech building that were also bugged. It wasn't safe for them to stay there.

Fred had guaranteed it was impossible for the mansion to be bugged, so they'd gathered up their gear and what was left of Baymax and retreated there.

In spite of the fact that Fred's dad had state of the art lab equipment, Hiro would have much rather been working in his and Tadashi's garage space. Working there was comforting to him and it made him feel closer to Tadashi. But now that he knew that Callaghan had violated that space, there was no way he was going to give their former mentor anything else to use against them. So here he was, hard at work in the Lee lab.

The files Tadashi had sent to Rosie were pretty much a godsend. It had probably taken Tadashi several months to complete Baymax's coding and if all of that had really been lost, it would have taken that same amount of time to recreate and by then, Callaghan and Yokai could have destroyed every last atom that had been Krei Tech, and themselves along with it. But with this near miraculous recovery, all Hiro really needed to do was combine the base programming with a few things recovered from his own subroutines.

If he left the original coding exactly as it was, Callaghan could just as easily force Tadashi to erase it again. So he was recalibrating the backdoor codes in order to protect Baymax. More than this, though, he was carefully recovering stored memory from his subroutines. Without that, Baymax wouldn't have Tadashi's current scans, and he wouldn't remember any of them. Something about that thought just made Hiro sick to his stomach, so he was being careful not to lose even one line of coding.

"Hiro?" he vaguely heard Rosie's voice from somewhere behind him. "How's it coming?"

"Fine," he grunted, not taking his attention away from the holo screen.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice coming from just behind him now. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt her fingers brush faintly against the bandages that now adorned his upper arms. Rosie's patch job from what he'd unwittingly done to himself that morning.

"Fine," was his only response, and still he didn't look at her.

"Cass made okonomiyaki. I brought you some…in case you were hungry," she said. He didn't look up when he heard the sound of a plate being set down on the table.

"Maybe later," he mumbled.

"I hope you know I have your aunt's full permission to force feed you if necessary. You aren't going back out there without something in your stomach."

"Yeah, great," he said. It was an empty threat and they all knew it. No one could force him to do _anything_ right now.

He heard Rosie sigh, seeing her lean against the table out of the corner of his eye.

"So what's the plan exactly?"

"Get Baymax up and running. He'll be able to find Tadashi and Callaghan. When we find them, we'll stop him," he answered succinctly.

"And what exactly does that entail, Hiro? Are you going to set Baymax on Callaghan like Yokai did to you?"

"No," he said firmly, finally turning to look at her. "He's turned my microbots into something they were never supposed to be. He's already corrupted Baymax once. I'm not gonna let him do it again. I'm not gonna let something Tadashi put his heart and soul into be twisted into a weapon. I just need him to find Callaghan. I'll handle the rest on my own."

"So…what? You're going to kill him?" she asked, worry evident in her eyes.

"Yes," he answered straight up. No dodging the issue, no sideways language. Just a simple, pure absolute. Yes. He _was_ going to kill Robert Callaghan for what he'd done to Tadashi.

"Hiro, this…this isn't what Tadashi would want."

"I think he might just feel differently if we could ask him now. Callaghan hurt my brother. He needs to pay for what he's done and I mean to _make_ him."

"Hiro, _please._ Once you cross that line, there's no going back," she pleaded with him, reaching forward to grip his hand. He angrily yanked his arm away in response.

"How would _you_ know?"

Again, Rosie sighed heavily. "Don't think I haven't seen death, Hiro Hamada. I've seen the absolute worst of humanity. There are things you don't know about me…about _why_ I'm a doctor. There are things I wish you _didn't_ have to know, but I also know we can't protect you forever."

"No. There are things _you_ don't know, Rosie. You don't know what Callaghan did to him," he ground out angrily as he turned back to the holo screen.

"No, I don't. Maybe you ought to show me," she suggested. He'd told them about the flash drive, but he hadn't let anyone see it.

Hiro's fingers froze just above the keyboard, his shoulders stiffening as he struggled to choke back the hatred the thought of those files gave birth to. "I shouldn't. He wouldn't want you to see it," he choked out. She would feel just as guilty as he did, and he didn't want this hideous bile spreading beyond his own soul. He didn't want to hurt what Tadashi had loved.

"He wouldn't have wanted you to see it either. Please let me see it. I know all you can do is feel helpless anger at what you saw, but I might actually be able to figure out a way to start helping him. If we're going to do that, I _need_ to know what we're dealing with."

" _Fine!_ " Hiro finally snapped, yanking the flash drive from his pocket and thrusting it into her outstretched hand. "But don't say I didn't warn you. For all your talk, you might just be on _my_ side once you've seen it."

XxX

" _Where am I?"_

" _Nowhere. You don't exist."_

_He isn't sure how many times this exchange has happened. Up until now, he hasn't been able to disprove the other voice. There is nothing around him – nothing but darkness and silence – nonbeing. And yet…that voice exists. It calls to him from somewhere beyond himself. More than this,_ _**his** _ _voice exists. He is_ _**able** _ _to ask._

_Cogito ergo sum._

" _That isn't true," he finally challenges the other voice. It sounds like him, but it's also_ _ **not**_ _him at the same time. "If I didn't exist, you wouldn't need to tell me I don't."_

" _Shut up."_

" _No. Tell me what's going on!"_

" _Shut up. Shut up! I don't want to hear this!"_

" _Just tell me what's happening!"_

" _Shut up! SHUT UP!_ _ **SHUT UP!**_ _" the other voice screams at him. Lines of searing red anger shoot through his void, piercing him with the hate of this other. "It's all your fault! You're the reason we're in pain! You shouldn't exist anymore! Why do you exist?"_

" _I don't know. You'll have to tell me. Where am I?_ _ **Who**_ _am I?"_

_At this, the blackness instantly washes to white. The only black that remains is the man standing before him – a young man with dark hair, clothed in a long black coat. The man glares as he surveys whatever it is he sees._

" _Who are you?"_

" _You ought to know me," the other man returns coldly. "I wear your face, after all."_

_At these words, he begins to realize he also inhabits a body. Looking down, he sees hands, wills himself to flex fingers. Then he reaches those fingers up to feel his face, feeling similar features to the ones he's looking at. However, when he realizes he doesn't have the other man's scars, something finally clicks in his brain._

" _Yokai," he says quietly. It's the name his master gave him._

_Wait? Master?_

" _That's right," Yokai returns, sneering at him as he begins to circle him. "Keep going."_

" _And I…I'm… my name…is…" he struggles for it, but it's just out of reach._

" _Not quite. Keep trying," Yokai mocks, continuing to circle._

_He has a name. Of course he does. He_ _**must!** _ _Only…what is it?_

" _Dammit," he hisses, fingers rubbing at his temples in frustration. Yokai laughs._

" _You don't know, do you. All you've got left is me. Yokai."_

" _That's not true!" he snaps at the other man. "It_ _ **can't**_ _be," his voice trails off, despair welling up in his heart. Is this really all that's left?_

" _It's not so bad. After all, where would you be without me? We survived because of_ _ **me,**_ _" Yokai growls._

" _Survive…survived what?"_

_Suddenly coming to a stop, Yokai slowly shakes his head, not looking at him as he does. "No. You don't want to know that."_

" _What? Happened?" he repeats slowly, taking a step in Yokai's direction._

_Yokai's eyes narrow as he glares at him out of the corner of his eye. "It should have destroyed you. Why didn't it destroy you? Why are you still here?! I don't want those terrible memories!" he snarls, clutching at his head in agony. "_ _**Why won't you just DIE?!** _ _"_

_Suddenly his heart is awash in the anguish pouring forth from the other man. The white space vanishes and he's assaulted by memories of pain. Agony in every atom of his being…pain searing his heart and mind. He remembers fire pouring over him like a boiling stream of lava. It consumes everything he is – and yet he's somehow still alive._

" _WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE?!" Yokai shrieks. His voice is everywhere, boring into his brain, clawing at his raw, bleeding soul – and he has no answer, no way to make this utter misery end._

_**Why am I still alive?** _

" _Nii-chan?"_

_Another voice – not the tormented raging of his other self, but something dear and precious. He reaches desperately for that voice, struggling through Hell in his attempt to grasp it._

_A young boy – a kid with the same hair and eyes Yokai has. Tears pour down his face as he reaches out a hand._

" _Nii-chan? Ta_shi? Where are you? Tada_!"_

_**He needs me.** _

_That's the answer. That's why he is still alive. He can't die – not so long as this boy needs him. This suffering would have killed anyone else, but he can't die yet._

_Hiro._

" _ **Hiro!**_ _" he cries out, but no matter what he does, he can't reach the boy._

" _ **No!**_ _" Yokai's suddenly snarling in his head. "You can't save him. He will die because of you! You are poison! Everything you love turns to ash!"_

_Then the surface he's standing on vanishes and he's falling, falling through smoke and fire and pain. He can hear Hiro screaming._

" _Ta_shi!_ _ **_dashi!**_ _"_

_When the falling finally stops, it's a different voice calling out. Hiro's still screaming, but it's with a different voice. There's still smoke, fire, and pain, but now he's trapped. His leg is caught and he can't get out and he's afraid. What happened?_

" _Mom!" he cries out in a different voice – younger, unchanged. "_ _ **Mom!**_ _"_

" _Tada_," a weak voice calls out to him. He looks forward to see his mother reaching back to him. Two of her fingers are broken and several trickles of blood are running down her face. When he looks to where his father should be, all he can see is broken glass and twisted metal. There's a half-severed hand hanging from what used to be the driver's seat of their car. Worse still, everything is painted red with blood. He feels bile gathering in his stomach. He opens his mouth to scream – but Mom gently rests her hand on his cheek, guiding his face away from the horrific sight._

" _Don't look, honey. Don't look," she soothes._

" _Mom…Tou-san," he sobs. He struggles to free his leg, but he can't do it._

" _It's all right. Everything's going to be all right," she insists, even though they both know it's not. "Ta_shi, can you move?"_

" _I can't," he sobs. "My leg's stuck."_

_Nodding vaguely, his mom starts to push at the jagged bar that's pinning his leg to the seat. It shouldn't be possible for her to move it when all she has to work with is her damaged right arm, but somehow the bar is moving by inches. Somewhere in the back of his mind, it occurs to him to snap open his seat belt._

_Somewhere off to his right, he can hear his baby brother sobbing. When he looks toward him, he can see a small cut on his forehead, but other than that, he doesn't look like he's hurt. For once in his life, the three-year-old hadn't been trying to get out of his car seat. While Mom works to free his leg, he reaches over to undo the buckle on the car seat, slowly pulling Hiro into his arms._

" _It's okay. You're okay," he lies for his baby brother, like their mom lied for him. He almost doesn't notice when she finally frees his leg._

" __dashi, baby, you have to get your brother out."_

" _What…what about you?"_

" _I'll be fine, honey. Just get Hiro out. Get yourselves out…and don't look back. Get as far from the car as you can."_

" _Mom-"_

" _Ta_shi, there's no time. You have to go_ _ **now!**_ _"_

" _A-all right. I'll get Hiro out…but I'm gonna come back," he insists, moving forward to hug her. She puts her arm around him, Hiro briefly cradled between the two of them. She presses kisses to each of their foreheads._

" _We love you. We love you both so much. Take care of each other. Go, now!" she groans in pain as she pushes him toward the door. It doesn't take much to push the mangled steel out of the way._

_Clutching Hiro to his chest, he crawls from the car and begins to limp away. He doesn't look back until he's gotten Hiro out onto the wet grass next to the highway, and just as he does, both their car and the truck that collided with them go up in flames._

" _ **NOO!**_ _" he screams, the force of the blast throwing him back several feet._

" _Why didn't you go back?" Yokai demands as flames begin to engulf his world once again. "You could've saved her. You_ _ **know**_ _you could have! Maybe the crash was your fault in the first place. If you hadn't been whining about Hiro trying to grab your game-"_

" _SHUT UP!" he screams, trying to block him out, trying to hold onto his baby brother, but even that isn't possible. Hiro's tiny form twists into smoke as the world begins to fall away again. He tries to scream, but he has no voice. Even if he did, who would hear him?_

_**Help…please…someone help me.** _

" _Ta_shi."_

_It isn't just Hiro this time. There's a new voice – a woman…someone familiar…warm, kind, and caring. A tender smile made bright by a pair of crystal blue eyes…the sun on lovely honey brown skin. Beauty. A desert rose._

_Suri._

_Hiro and Suri. The two people he loves most in all the world. Together their beloved voices call out to him, a balm for the fraying edges of his fragile soul, but still he can't quite hear his own name. He still has nothing to disprove Yokai…_

… _and at the thought of his demon heart, he suddenly hears Hiro and Suri screaming._

" _ **Baymax…**_ _ **destroy!**_ _ **"**_

" _ **TA_SHI!**_ _ **"**_

_Hiro…lying on the floor…coughing up a spray of blood…lips forming the words…_

" _ **N…Nii-chan."**_

_Suri…pinned down…tears streaming down her face as Yokai tears her clothing from her body. He can't help but feel how warm she is against him._

" _ **_dashi…please…**_ _ **don't do this.**_ _ **"**_

_**NOOOO!** _ _his heart cries out in anguish._

" _Yes," Yokai's taunting voice is in his ear again. "_ _ **You**_ _did this._ _ **You**_ _hurt them. You will be the_ _ **death**_ _of them."_

" _No!" he sobs, wishing he could just tear his heart from his chest. "No, this_ _ **can't happen!**_ _"_

" _It already has. You can't stop it. You're a_ _ **monster!**_ _"_

_He sees them die – over and over again – and he dies with them, his soul crushed a thousand times over._

_Hiro enters the building instead of him, disappearing in a wall of fire. Hiro's the one trapped in the car instead of Mom. He's not in time to the bot fight and Yama's men leave his brother in the alley for him to find, completely broken. His battered body lying on the concrete – dead by Baymax's hand – on his order._

_Suri's the one trapped in the building instead of Callaghan and he can't get to her. She's working in the New Cairo trauma center and insurrectionists burst in, gunning her down before she even has time to scream. She lies broken in his ruined lab, not quite dead, but something in her soul murdered – her clothing in tatters and her inner thighs slicked with blood._

_He can't bear it. Every new vision is like bleeding out, but he still doesn't die. He just goes on living, goes on suffering, unable to die._

" _Wouldn't they be so much better off if you were dead?" Yokai suggests callously. "As long as you live, they will be in pain. Isn't it better to just let them move on? They don't need you."_

_He doesn't know if he believes it or not. He feels it's true, but if it is, then why is he still here? That question is all he has as he burns alone in the dark._

_**Why am I still alive?** _

"Wake up, Yokai," his master said as he entered his cell.

Yokai blinked several times as he sat up on his cot, easily shaking off sleep. Already the horrors of his night terrors were fading away. He was aware he carried Hell behind his eyes when he slept, but that meant nothing to him when he was awake. _He_ meant nothing to him. Now he was Callaghan's.

"Functioning at full capacity?" his master asked him.

"Yes, sir," he responded as he quickly got to his feet, standing at attention.

"Good. Everything's prepared. Today's the day. I want you combat ready in ten minutes."

"Understood."

XxX

After working through the night, Hiro had finally finished all the necessary computations to get Baymax up and running. There was a moment before attempting reactivation that he'd considered not telling the others and just going it alone, but then Rosie had reentered the lab and he'd known by the sight of her that none of them could do this alone. The young surgeon's face was pale and tear-stained and her hands were shaking badly.

"Is…is Baymax ready yet?"

"Yeah," Hiro answered, voice a little less venomous than it had been the previous night. "You saw it?"

"Yes."

"You saw what he did?"

"I did."

"You saw what that monster did to Tadashi…and are you upset or aren't you?" he demanded quietly, voice possessed of a sort of controlled anger.

"Of course I am. It…it's _awful_. It isn't any wonder Baymax wasn't able to diagnose it. We'd never even _imagined_ a scenario like this. We'd talked about…creating a program specifically to assist with combat veterans, but this…it's just unthinkable," she said, running a hand through her loose brown curls.

"Is there any way of helping him?" Hiro asked as he entered the reprogrammed chip into Baymax's storage unit.

"Yes…but it won't be easy. Much of it will depend on him…and whether or not he _wants_ to come back from this."

"And after seeing all that…do you still not want to kill Robert Callaghan?" he asked as he slowly looked up at her.

Rosie stared at him several moments, sighing heavily before answering. "Hiro…the Hippocratic Oath not withstanding, I promised myself a long time ago I would never do that. Maybe some people _do_ deserve to die, but I'm not the one with the power to make that choice."

" _Why?_ " Hiro demanded quietly, voice threaded with latent rage. "I thought you loved Tadashi, Rosie. Why wouldn't you want to make the man who did this to him _suffer?_ "

"Don't do that, Hiro. Don't make this about my feelings for Tadashi. That's no different from what Callaghan did to Ruby Krei."

"So what?" he snapped as he turned away from her. "Maybe I'm _not_ any different from him. Maybe I _need_ to be like him to give him what he deserves."

"You don't really believe that," she said calmly. "I know you _want_ to believe that of yourself, but you don't. Not really."

"How would _you_ know?" he snarled, repeating his question from earlier. "How could you know _anything_ about me?!"

"I know because _I_ felt that way when I was your age. I know _exactly_ how all that pain and anger feels. You see…my dad was a soldier. He fought in the Raqi War. He was a good man, and he was killed in cold blood. For the longest time, I wanted to make his killers pay. I was filled with rage and hurt and hate. I thought I'd _die_ with all that hate in my veins, but then something happened for me…and I'm hoping it happens for you, too," she explained as she moved toward him. When she placed a hand on his shoulder, he slowly shook his head.

"No," he whispered, not just to disprove her, but to force back the way her words were resonating with him. In fact, they echoed almost exactly what he'd felt in Tadashi's lab, nearly choking on his own hate. If he was going to see this through to the end, he couldn't let go of this anger yet.

"Hiro…do you hate Robert Callaghan more than you love Tadashi?"

Those words really _did_ cause something to begin to splinter inside of him. Almost afraid to let go of his anger, he pulled himself away from Rosie and moved back to the storage unit, grinding out a pained, "Ow!" without responding to the doctor's question.

Baymax immediately deployed from the storage unit, quickly re-inflating. When he stepped from the unit, he glanced between Hiro and Suri for a moment before waving at Hiro.

"Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

Hiro smiled bitterly as he looked the robot over. He was glad to have him back, but there was also a small part of him that was afraid he would never really be able to unsee the berserker bot bearing down on him with the intent to kill him.

"Yeah, Baymax, we know that part."

"Hiro," the nurse bot began slowly. "If my memory checks are valid…it seems my healthcare protocols have been violated. You have sustained a very severe injury to your ribcage."

"Yeah, but it's all right. Rosie patched me up," he said.

"Yes, the wound has been properly treated. With proper care, there is no reason you should not make a full recovery."

"Heh, sure," Hiro said as he moved to retrieve Baymax's helmet from the pile of armor that was haphazardly stacked against the lab wall. He wasn't sure how much 'proper care' his wounds would be receiving.

"You have also been injured," Baymax commented calmly as he turned his attention to Rosie. "You have a puncture wound in your lower left torso. There are also severe contusions on your wrists and abrasions on your-"

"I know," she interrupted before he could finish.

"The abrasions have not been properly treated. There is already mild infection. I would suggest an antibiotic," Baymax said as he began to move toward her.

"Maybe later, Baymax," she said, smiling at the nurse bot as she took a step back. She didn't want Hiro to know where _those_ injuries were. "I think Hiro wants you right now."

"Here," the young roboticist started as he dragged his chair over to the nurse bot, hopping up on it to place the scanner on his head. "It was damaged during the fight. Is it working?"

"Enhanced scanner working at maximum capacity," Baymax answered after a moment.

"Good. I need you to find Tadashi. If we find him, we can find Callaghan," he explained as he began to help Baymax back into the armor.

"I do not understand, Hiro. The treatment appeared to be working before, but now your mood seems to be wildly unstable."

"Ain't that the understatement of the freakin' year," Hiro growled, continuing to snap the pieces of armor back into place.

"I realize that because Tadashi is not dead, it is unnecessary to grieve for him, but it does not change the fact that you have suffered an emotional hurt. What will apprehending Professor Callaghan do for that hurt?"

"Not a damn thing!" Hiro snapped, working feverishly to finish putting the armor on. "I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing it for Tadashi. And I'm not gonna 'apprehend' Callaghan. I'm gonna kill him."

"Hiro, my programming prevents me from-"

"I know! I get that. I won't make you. You just need to find them. I'll do the rest myself. He needs to be punished for what he did to Tadashi. I don't expect anyone else to get their hands dirty. I can do this alone," he insisted, moving back toward the wall to retrieve Baymax's chest plate

"This is not what Tadashi would-"

"Tadashi's _gone!_ " Hiro finally screamed, slamming the chest plate back against the wall. "Tadashi…Callaghan _destroyed_ him. I'm not even sure if we _can_ get him back. But if doing that means sacrificing everything else that I am, then I'll do it. I _have_ to."

"Tadashi is here," Baymax said simply.

"No," Hiro said, voice dropping into a whisper as his hands curled into fists against the wall. "He's _not here_." Callaghan had twisted him into something just as dark and horrifying as _he'd_ become – and that was Hiro's fault. It was _his fault_ Tadashi wasn't here.

"Tadashi is here," Baymax repeated. Then Hiro heard another voice entirely.

"This is Tadashi Hamada, and this is the first test of my robotics project."

Slowly turning to face the other two, Hiro saw that a video file had begun to play on Baymax's chest – a video of Tadashi going through several activation tests with the nurse bot. As he moved slowly back toward Baymax, he could feel tears burning fiercely just behind his eyes.

With every moment he watched, he remembered all the life and love Tadashi had always carried with him – the bright soul that Callaghan and Yokai had stolen from him – the man that wanted nothing more than to help others. With every word, Hiro found Rosie's words coming back to him more and more.

_Do you hate Robert Callaghan more than you love Tadashi?_

No. The answer to that question was no. The brother he loved couldn't be saved with anger and hatred. The only way to bring Tadashi back was with love.

"That's all for now. I am satisfied with my care," his brother finally finished before the feed cut out. For several moments, the three just stood in silence, two with wet eyes and one with eyes unable to produce tears, but no less attuned to the emotion of the moment.

"Thanks, Baymax," Hiro said quietly, reaching out to lay a hand on the healthcare bot's chest. When he looked toward Rosie, he saw that she had her hands over her mouth as tears poured down her face. "Rosie…I'm sorry. I won't forget what you said…but I'm not gonna promise I won't kill the guy. I just…the only thing that should matter right now is getting Tadashi back. Callaghan comes later."

"Thank you, Hiro," the young doctor said softly, moving in to join the little circle. Resting a hand beside his on Baymax's chest, she briefly wrapped her other arm around him. "That's all I can ask."

"There's the Hiro we know and love," Hiro suddenly heard Fred say. When he looked to the door, he saw the others all standing there, already suited up. Fred was grinning manically while Wasabi just smiled faintly. Honey Lemon wore a bright, beautiful smile on her face and when Hiro noticed that she was holding hands with GoGo, he couldn't help but notice the tiny grin hidden in the engineer's normally stoic expression.

"You guys ready to roll?" he asked them.

"Just say the word, captain," Wasabi said with a nod.

"Right. We're gonna get Tadashi back this time."

… _or I'm gonna die trying._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now comes the battle for Krei Tech!


	8. The Watcher of the Eternal Flame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we'll finally see some action. Hope you like.

Cass knew that Hiro would have preferred her to wait at the Lee mansion until it was all over. There was no way of telling just how much of the café was bugged (which was a horrifying thought in and of itself; she found herself jumping at shadows as she moved through the day), but she _did_ have a business to run.

At the moment, it was best to just go on like nothing was happening. She tried to behave like normal, explaining away any noticeable nerves to curious customers by saying that Hiro had been in an accident. Not entirely untrue, so it was believable enough to deflect people. While she worked, she kept an ear tuned into the local news, waiting for anything that might be happening. The only one who could really understand what she was going through was Suri, who had decided to wait with her.

The young surgeon was sitting near the front of the café, mindlessly sipping mocha after mocha while she kept her attention on the TV. They didn't speak to each other, just exchanged meaningful and worried glances whenever Cass brought her a new drink. It was just a little before the lunch rush that Suri's worried voice called her out of the kitchen.

"Cass?" she called loudly, saying nothing else. That was all the near distraught aunt needed to hear in order to know something was happening. She stepped out of the kitchen, eyes immediately zeroing in on the television, where a reporter was delivering a breaking news story.

"This just in. We are receiving word of some sort of terrorist attack on Krei Technologies."

"Oh, God," Cass whispered, eyes riveted to the screen, along with half the café. She didn't see Suri approach her, but when she felt a hand slip into hers, she gripped it without thought, the two women standing together to witness what fate was in store for the people they loved most in the world.

XxX

"Those setbacks made us stronger and set us on the path to a bright future."

Those were the words that finally pushed Robert Callaghan over the edge. Here Alistair Krei stood in success – stood on the ruins of so many lives, and that meant nothing at all to him. He probably didn't even notice that his own cousin was dead. Yokai knew what to do. It was up to him to proceed.

" _Setback?!_ " he demanded harshly as he emerged from the crowd gathered before the business magnate. "Was my daughter a setback?"

"C-Callaghan?" Krei whispered, eyes wide with shock, as if he'd (dare he think it) seen a ghost. "You…you're _dead._ "

"What about Tomeo and Marie? Or were they just bugs on your windshield?" he snarled as he moved up onto the platform. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a security detail moving toward him, but they would have their hands full in another moment.

"What- what are you talking about?" Krei asked, stepping back as Callaghan bore down on him.

"Oh? Don't remember how Silent Sparrow just fell into your lap? You'd better remember like your _life_ depends on it!"

As he spoke, the campus began to fill with microbots, swarming all along the pristine white buildings. When Yokai appeared in the midst of it all, controlling them, the other guests began to scatter, screaming as they ran for cover. Yokai didn't go after them, though. There was only one person he was interested in. Before Krei could make a break for it, one of the swarms had seized hold of him, pinning him in place.

"Callaghan, _please!_ " Krei begged him as the former professor began to circle him, all while Yokai stood off to the side, manipulating the microbots.

"You have a nasty habit of that, _don't you!_ " Callaghan snarled, signaling to his weapon to tighten his grip on the businessman. "Conveniently forgetting about the dead bodies you walk over to get where you are. You don't even remember my little girl's name, do you."

"You- you're daughter, that…that was an accident. I didn't-"

" _Abigail!_ " he shrieked at the other man. "Her name was Abigail! And you didn't care enough about her life to make sure your stolen calculations were correct. You _knew_ the project wasn't ready. All you cared about was your damn contracts. My daughter is gone because of your arrogance."

At this, Yokai began to manipulate several more streams of microbots, all of them coming together to reconstitute the failed Project Silent Sparrow.

"What are you doing?" Krei asked, eyes impossibly wide with fear as he watched the portal come together overhead.

"You murdered my best friend. Then you took everything I had left when you sent Abigail into that machine. Now I'm taking everything from _you,_ " he explained, unable to help the small sneer that spread across his face.

"No. No, you can't!" Krei cried out, finally understanding what was going to happen.

"You're going to watch everything you've built disappear, and then it's _your_ turn. This ends today. You will never hurt anyone again!"

"Callaghan, _stop!_ " a new voice suddenly joined the fray – a voice he would have rather not heard here, but really, he should have known. Hiro and Tadashi really were Tomeo's sons.

"I thought I told you to stay away, Hiro," he said quietly, not turning to look at the group of would-be heroes.

"And I'm pretty sure I told you I was gonna save my brother, no matter what it took," Hiro snapped back at him. "Wouldn't you save Abigail if you could?"

"Of course I would," he said, glaring at the boy out of the corner of his eye. "But it's not that simple. Abigail is _gone!_ "

"She might not be."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, finally turning to face his former students.

"Ruby Krei sent a message before she died. She believed that Abigail might still be alive. There might be a chance to save her. You can still stop all this."

For several moments, Callaghan just stared at the boy. There was still a very small portion of his heart that wanted to believe it could be that easy – that all these years of suffering could be over just like that – but he wasn't capable of that kind of hope anymore and he knew it. The hurt ran too deep to just be cast aside like that. Shaking his head, the former professor let the glare return to his face.

"You're lying. It's just a trick to distract me…to save this money-grubbing piece of filth, and I can't _imagine_ why you'd want to protect him. He's the _reason_ you have no parents."

"You don't know that. You said it yourself. You don't _know_ who ordered the hit. He should stand trial for what he's had a hand in, not be executed for something someone else might've done. This won't make anything better. Callaghan…please…just let it go."

Sighing heavily, Callaghan turned his attention back to Krei and Yokai. "It seems we're not going to agree. I warned you, Hiro. Yokai…destroy them," he ordered harshly.

XxX

Upon being commanded to enter the fight, Yokai immediately slammed Alistair Krei against a far wall, easily pinning him in place with a few pieces of twisted steel, out of the way and easy prey for later.

At first, he tried for a total annihilation approach, sending waves of microbots down in an attempt to crush his targets. They did eventually figure out ways around the crushing attacks, though, and he noticed when they began to focus their own attacks on the microbots instead of him. At that point, he opted for a stealthier approach. While allowing his opponents to think they were taking out the microbots, he continued to call them back before they could pass through the portal, keeping them in reserve, pending just the right moment.

He kept the brunt of his attacks focused on the boy who seemed to be their leader, pursuing him and his robot across the increasingly treacherous battlefield.

"Come on, Tadashi! Think you can keep up with me!" the boy challenged, and Yokai couldn't quite help sneering beneath his mask. He was about to show this little brat just _how_ well he could keep up. As the boy drew him closer and closer to the portal, he pulled a feint, pretending to be unable to summon any more bots.

"Oops. Looks like you're out of microbots, bro."

_That's what_ _**you** _ _think._

That moment of triumphant distraction was all Yokai needed. With the speed of a thought, he easily summoned up a battering ram of microbots.

"HIRO, LOOK OUT!" someone below screamed, but it was far too late. The fresh wave of microbots slammed into the boy with such force, he was separated from the robot. While one strand kept the robot imprisoned, another thrust the boy beyond the reach of the portal, sending him plummeting toward the earth below.

However, at the last possible moment, one of the other targets leapt up and caught him – the one in the lizard suit.

Feeling a brief spike of irritation, Yokai quickly pursued them. No sooner had the lizard set the boy safely on the ground than he was assaulted by a new wave of microbots. The lizard was slammed impossibly hard against the concrete, his head giving a loud _crack_ as it impacted, and when he didn't rise, Yokai felt a small flare of satisfaction.

"FRED!" the boy cried out in horror. Before he could go to his fallen comrade, Yokai moved swiftly past him, drawing his katana to make a decisive end of the target.

"Tadashi, _no!_ " the boy cried out.

Yokai ignored the cry, raising his blade for the strike, but before he could deliver the blow, a chem ball burst near his head. The blast knocked him sideways, the resulting material hardening almost immediately and cementing his arm to the ground. Turning to look over his shoulder, he saw the pink clad target readying another chem ball. Large-scale attacks clearly weren't working on these targets. More subtle tactics were called for.

He couldn't twist far enough to use one of his throwing knives on her, but he did have thousands upon thousands of tiny projectiles at his disposal. All it would take was one. None of them would notice.

He summoned the microbot from overhead, calling it down with the speed of a bullet shot from a gun. It moved with such force it shot straight through her, piercing just above the break in her chest armor and exiting through her lower left shoulder, breaking through her armor.

She didn't cry out. Her mouth just opened wide in a silent scream of pain as she collapsed. But before she hit the ground, the yellow-armored target raced to her, catching her in her arms and gently lowering her to the shattered concrete. Blood was already smearing red against the shorter woman's armor.

"G- Go…Go," she whispered, reaching a hand up to touch the other woman's face.

"Just don't move. Don't move. You're gonna be fine," she repeated several times, panic evident in her voice.

"GoGo…it hurts," she whispered, trembling as she clung to her comrade.

"Stay with me, Honey. Don't you _dare_ die on me!"

Yokai might have killed them both then and there had the robot not suddenly moved to stand in front of them, having escaped Yokai's hold in his moment of distraction.

"Pressure must be applied to the wound in order to prevent blood loss," the robot explained calmly. "If you will permit me, I will administer treatment."

The woman nodded faintly as she passed her fallen comrade into the robot's care. For a moment she seemed dazed, but then she slowly removed her helmet, letting it fall beside them as she stood to face Yokai. Quickly summoning up a small stream of microbots, he easily broke the hardened substance that held him to the ground. Sneering beneath the mask, he dropped into a battle ready position. This was a rematch he would admit to looking forward to. Her gaze was almost as unhinged as he knew his own to be.

" _TADASHI!_ "

XxX

Almost all activity had ceased in the café as the patrons watched the images pouring in from the Krei Tech campus. The footage was rough, but the two women who knew what they were looking at could understand the battle they were witnessing. Cass had had to look away when Hiro had nearly fallen to his death. When Suri had seen Fred and Honey Lemon go down, she couldn't just stand back and watch anymore. She knew what she had to do.

"Cass, they need help. I've got to go to them _now,_ " she explained, quiet but fierce.

Cass' first instinct was to tell her there was no way she was letting her go, that she'd get herself killed, but she also knew Suri was right. Hiro and the others needed her. Nodding, she led the way out of the café and down into the garage.

"You'll have trouble getting the car down there with everything that's happening, but the moped just might be able to make it through," she said, retrieving the keys and Tadashi's helmet. "Do you know how to drive it?"

"Yes," Suri said as she put the helmet on and took the keys, starting the moped up.

"Bring them home alive," she said as she opened up the garage door.

"I will," she promised before gunning the little bike out onto the street.

XxX

GoGo wasn't fully aware of the world around her when she threw herself at Yokai. All she knew was that he'd tried to kill Honey Lemon and she was going to make him _suffer_ for it.

" _TADASHI!_ " she screamed as she advanced, flinging her discs at him. He easily redirected them with a few streams of microbots, but she kept coming at him, not leaving him time to redirect microbots. He had to stay focused on her.

She could hear Wasabi and Hiro shouting at her, but she didn't let herself hear what they were saying. She just kept going at her former best friend.

_Tadashi, I swear, if you take Honey away from me…_

She didn't let the thought finish. She couldn't. It was too painful. She just threw herself into the fight, body and soul, giving everything she had to stop Yokai's rampage. When one of the discs finally struck true and clipped the mask, knocking it from his head, she didn't let up for even a moment. She kept going at him as the microbots rained down all around them. She hardly even noticed when the portal crashed back to earth. Instead she felt a small spike of glee when she knocked the katana from his hands and drove him to the ground. Springing forward, she seized the fallen weapon and drove it into his shoulder, straight through into the ground, pinning him in place. Then she proceeded to beat him without mercy.

"GoGo, _stop!_ " Hiro's voice was the one to finally break through to her when he seized her shoulder. "We got the mask. It's over."

"No. It is _not_ over," Yokai snarled, using the moment of distraction to actually pull the blade from his body. He then shoved GoGo away and rolled clear of her, easily getting back to his feet. Immediately, he launched himself back at GoGo and the two former friends continued their fierce brawl.

"Hiro!" the young team leader suddenly heard Callaghan calling out to him. He turned to see the former professor moving toward him across the destroyed campus. "Give me the mask."

"Forget it," Hiro snapped, taking a step back. "It really is over this time. We're gonna get this thing shut down."

"That won't be happening any time soon. The magnetic containment field is failing. It won't be long before the portal tears itself apart and Krei will be going with it. One way or another, this is going to be finished."

"Hiro," Baymax suddenly called out to him. "My scanner is indicating signs of life coming from within the portal."

"Ruby was right," Hiro breathed in amazement as his gaze shot to the destabilizing portal.

Callaghan felt something in his chest tighten as his gaze followed the boy's. His first thought was that Baymax must be lying, but he also knew that was impossible.

"Abigail?" he whispered.

Making a snap decision, he seized the mask from Hiro.

"Yokai, hold!" he ordered sharply. His weapon immediately tossed his opponent away, snapping to attention. Callaghan tossed the mask to him before Hiro could snatch it back. "Enter the portal. Get my daughter back!"

Yokai snapped the mask back on, quickly summoning up a fresh wave of microbots.

" _Tadashi, NO!_ " Hiro screamed, but it was already too late. Yokai had ridden the wave of bots straight into the dimensional gateway. He didn't even need a moment to choose. He already knew what he had to do. He'd watched his brother race headlong into certain destruction once. He was _not_ going to stand back and let it happen all over again. "Baymax!" he shouted.

The nurse bot responded to him at once, leaving Honey Lemon and Fred with Wasabi. As Hiro climbed up onto Baymax's back, GoGo slowly moved toward them, bleeding from several small wounds.

"Hiro, what are you doing?"

"I have to go after him. I can't let him do this alone. Not this time."

"Man, that thing's collapsing. It's not gonna stay open much longer. What if you don't make it out?"

"Then I don't make it out. Not much I can do about it if it happens. Tadashi might not be able to get back. Somebody's gotta help them," he said firmly. "Tell Aunt Cass I'm sorry," he said before spurring Baymax through the collapsing gateway.

Passing through the portal was like – well, there were really no words to describe what it was like, because it was _un_ like anything he'd ever experienced before. Gravity was more of a suggestion than a law and there were pieces of debris drifting all over the place. Up ahead, he could see Tadashi proceeding carefully through the field of junk, borne on his wave of microbots. If he had to guess, he'd say his brother might have been having trouble controlling the bots in this unearthly environment.

"Baymax, do you have a bead on Abigail yet?" he asked as they jetted carefully through the debris.

"Yes. I have located the patient," he said, nodding his head in a direction somewhere up ahead – at least if that designation could properly be used here. When a large chunk of building finally drifted past, Hiro could see the pod from the security footage floating at the far edge of the field.

"Tadashi! Over here!" he called out to his brother, hoping he would follow them in the direction of the pod. He didn't look to see, but he felt a sense of relief when he heard the familiar clank of the microbots drawing closer. By the time he and Baymax reached the wayward pod, Tadashi had drawn up beside them. Reaching forward to wipe grime from the glass, he looked inside to see Abigail sleeping soundly, still strapped into her seat. Ruby hadn't been wrong after all. Her pod _had_ kept Abigail safe.

Looking up at his brother's masked face, he hesitated only a moment before suggesting, "We can steer the pod if you can move debris."

Tadashi simply nodded, taking up a position beside the pod as Baymax began to jet back through the debris field, pushing it along. With Tadashi cutting a path with the microbots, they were able to make a straight shot back toward the portal – right up until the moment Tadashi didn't notice the oncoming glass.

The section of broken window came at them almost out of nowhere, and unnoticed until it was nearly too late. When Tadashi did see it, he threw himself in front of Hiro without thought, holding him against his chest as the glass shattered against them.

"Tadashi!" Hiro shouted as he looked up at his brother, just in time to see some of the glass shards tear the mask from his face. He was clearly in pain, but he didn't make a sound, just kept Hiro from harm as the last fragments of the now blood-stained glass moved past them.

"Tadashi?" he repeated fearfully as he continued to look up at him. Then he opened his eyes, and for a moment – just a moment – he thought he saw his brother.

"Hi…ro…" Tadashi whispered brokenly, fear and confusion in every line of his face.

"Nii-chan?" he whispered back, but then Tadashi's grip on him suddenly tightened, almost as if he meant to crush him.

"These efforts are useless," he hissed, voice dropping back into Yokai's harsh, unfeeling tone. "I am only a shadow of what was."

Hiro might have said more, except that was the moment Baymax carried them back through the gateway, crash landing the pod in a pile of crumbled concrete just as the portal completely ripped itself apart.

"HIRO!" he heard the others shouting, but he wasn't fully aware of what was happening, as Tadashi suddenly shoved him off the pod, using his katana to break through the glass and pull Abigail out. Hiro fell to the ground before Baymax could catch him, dazed when his head struck the concrete.

"Good work, Yokai," Callaghan said as he moved toward them, leading a bound Alistair Krei. "You take him. I'll carry her. We need to leave here now," he said, shoving Krei at Tadashi's feet so he could take his daughter in his arms. Hiro couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw a second neural band around Callaghan's forehead. As they made their switch, the former professor summoned up what few microbots hadn't been trapped beyond the portal, creating a small wave that quickly carried the four of them away. All the while, Krei was screaming for help.

" _No!_ " Hiro shouted, struggling to get to his feet, swaying for only a moment before Baymax came to help him.

"You should not move too much. You have a mild concussion," the robot explained in his normal soothing tone.

"There's no _time_ to worry about this," Hiro snapped faintly, fighting to stay standing on his own. "We have to go after them."

"Hiro!" he heard a different voice join in with Wasabi's and GoGo's. He looked up just in time to see Rosie ride up on Tadashi's moped as the other two ran toward him. "What happened?"

"They got away," Hiro groaned. "But…Rosie…he _knew_ me. It was just for a second, but Tadashi _knew me._ I've got to go after him."

"Hiro-" Baymax started to protest.

"I'll be fine, Baymax. It's shaking off already. I'll be fine by the time we get where they're going."

"We're going with you," GoGo said right away.

"GoGo, you shouldn't-" he started.

"If I can still stand, I can still fight. We've gotta stop this before anything else happens."

"Go ahead. I can stay with Fred and Honey Lemon," Rosie said as she pulled out the kit she'd brought with her. "But I do expect an extended hospital stay for _all_ of you when you bring Tadashi home."

"Right," Hiro said with a tiny nod as he climbed back onto Baymax. GoGo and Wasabi joined him without question. "Let's do this!" he shouted, spurring Baymax off in pursuit of their fleeing targets.

One way or another, this was going to end tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup. I'm really gonna stop there. You really are gonna have to wait until the next chapter to finally see that epic showdown we've all been waiting for. *guilty sideways glance* Sorry, not sorry.


	9. Please Don't Die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well…you've waited for it. And now…you shall have it.

Hiro wasn't as surprised as all that when Baymax tracked Callaghan back to Akuma Island. It was where everything had gone down, after all. There was some sort of poetic justice in bringing Krei here to die, whether or not Hiro actually believed he deserved to die. It started here. Now it was going to end here.

"Of course it _would_ be this damn place again," GoGo snarled as she hopped off of Baymax.

"Pretty sure Fred would have something to say about it…if he was here," Wasabi said, expression falling at the thought of their friend.

"I would advise against proceeding with this mission," Baymax told them. "You all have injuries that need tending to. It would be dangerous to continue as you are."

"We know, Baymax," Hiro said as he dismounted, wincing in pain when he landed. Apart from being concussed, he knew all this fighting had done his ribs no favors. "That's why I want you to go and get Rosie. If Fred and Honey Lemon can spare her, bring her here. I'm pretty sure we'll need her by the time this is over," he said, eyes briefly sweeping over the compound for any signs of trouble.

"If that is what you want, then I will bring Suri here. Please exercise caution until I return," Baymax advised before blasting off.

GoGo laughed quietly as she watched the nurse bot rocket into the distance. "So what? Does that mean we're allowed to be totally reckless once he gets back?"

"Not that you're ever anything _but_ reckless," Wasabi ribbed easily, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"Not that _you'd_ have it any other way," she teased back, smiling as she glanced up at him out of the corner of her eyes. They both knew it well may be their last chance to joke.

"That's true. So even if you do try your best to get yourself killed in there, I'm going to do everything I can to get you back to Honey Lemon."

"Thanks, man," she returned quietly, and that was the end of it. When Hiro headed into the abandoned building, they both fell into step behind him.

"So what're you thinking, little man?" Wasabi asked him.

"Nothing, really," Hiro answered, not looking back at them. "We just need to find them. Tadashi's hurt…and there aren't that many microbots left."

"Yeah, but he doesn't need more than one to do damage," GoGo reminded them bitterly.

"True enough," Hiro admitted dispassionately. "But he's still hurt. You had a good crack at him and he took a bad hit in that portal. We'll just have to hope we can use that to our advantage…and that Callaghan'll be distracted enough by Abigail to be off his game."

"So no plan then?" Wasabi clarified as they moved through the musty darkness.

"None whatsoever," Hiro said with a sad smile. "We'll just have to see what exactly we're dealing with."

"Well…guess we've made due with less than that these last couple days," Wasabi said with a shrug. There was no point in worrying anymore. They had come here to do what they _had_ to do, not what they _should_ be doing, and he had a nasty feeling that was going to be their lives from now on…

…if there even _was_ a 'from now on' after tonight.

XxX

The first thing Abigail became aware of was the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed in and out. For the longest time, it seemed to be all she consisted of – that simple, almost wave-like motion, in and out, ebb and flow.

The next thing to enter her sphere of awareness was her father's voice.

"Abigail? Abby?" he called to her, gentle voice reaching to her through the haze of her sleep-addled mind. "Can you hear me?"

"Dad?" she called back, still unable to open her eyes, unable to move.

"It's all right, honey. Everything's going to be all right now." Then she felt a hand run along the side of her face.

"Where…where am I?" she finally got herself to ask. "What happened? The test…where's Ruby?"

"That was a long time ago, Abigail."

"Long…time… _what?_ " she mumbled in confusion as her eyelids finally blinked open. When she looked up to see her father kneeling over her, she was shocked to see how much older he looked. Not just in body – there was something different in his eyes. Something was gone, or something was added. She couldn't tell, and it frightened her. When she tried to reach up a hand to touch his face, she found she had no control over her own body. "Dad…what happened to me? Why can't I move?"

"Abby…this may shock you a little, but you've been asleep for eight years," he explained.

"Eight _years?_ " she repeated in shock.

"Yes. There are bound to be some adverse side effects on your body."

"What…why…what _happened?_ Where's Ruby?" she repeated, struggling to look behind him.

"Silent Sparrow failed…cataclysmically. The portal destroyed itself. You were lost. For eight years…we thought you were dead, Abby," her father said, taking her limp hands in his and kissing both of them.

"Dad…where's Ruby?" she repeated, feeling a chord of pain strike in her heart, even though she didn't know why yet. If it had really been eight years – had Ruby moved on? Maybe met someone new? If that was the case, she had to know. It would be painful, but she had to know.

"Abigail," he started with a long sigh, "I'm truly sorry to have to tell you this…but Ruby's dead."

For a moment, it didn't sink in. The agony of that truth was lodged within her heart like a tiny poisonous barb that hadn't yet done its work. But then that poison bloomed and the anguish burst from her heart and spread to the rest of her, racing through her veins.

"No," she whispered, the shock and anguish nearly strangling her as tears sprang to her eyes. Eight years of dreaming only to wake to _this?_ She would've rather remained asleep. She would've rather died herself than wake to a world in which Ruby no longer existed. " _No!_ "

Over the sounds of her sobs, she heard another sound, and when she realized it was distinct from her own keening cry, she finally managed to gather enough strength to turn her head and look past her father – only to see that the muffled sounds were coming from her boss, bound and gagged at the opposite end of the room. He was guarded by a man she thought looked familiar, but she couldn't discern why.

"A- Alistair?" she mumbled in confusion. What was going on here?

"I hate to have to tell you this now, Abby…but did you know this man killed Tomeo and Marie Hamada?" her father asked, turning to glare at the CEO.

" _What?_ " she whispered in shock, though she now realized why Alistair's guard seemed so familiar. He reminded her of Tomeo, only he was much younger than her father's friend – who had now been dead for eleven years instead of the mere three it had been when she'd entered the gateway. Alistair shook his head violently at the accusation, though, eyes wide with fear as he attempted to cry out through the gag in his mouth.

"He didn't raise a hand to them himself, of course, but what I do know for certain is that the concept behind Silent Sparrow was Tomeo's. Knowing what a goldmine such technology would be in military contracts, and knowing that Tomeo would never leave Lee Corp, Krei had him murdered for the designs. His wife, and nearly his two young sons, were just _collateral damage,_ " her father snarled quietly, looking at Alistair with hate in his eyes.

"Wait," Abigail interrupted, finally beginning to make the connection when her father brought up Tomeo's sons. " _Tadashi?_ " she whispered in shock.

The young man didn't respond to her, but she knew it was the truth. She recognized him now, and it was this, more than anything else, that made her feel the years that had passed. Tadashi Hamada had still been a boy the last time she'd seen him, but the person standing before her now was a man – a man hardened by pain and suffering, a far cry from the bright, happy boy she'd known.

"Yes. He's been helping to avenge his parents' murder. I meant to see Krei in the electric chair for what he did…but then I lost you."

It was the word 'avenge' that sounded a warning bell in her head. Her father didn't say things like that – not when he thought she could hear him, anyway. Now he was talking about murder and punishment like he doled them out at the drop of a hat. In these eight years she'd been gone, what had happened to the man who'd raised her? With every detail of his plan to bring her former employer to justice, Abigail found herself growing more and more horrified.

"I don't ask you to forgive me the things I've done, Abby. I don't even ask for your understanding. I know I don't deserve it. I _can't_ let the last eight years be for nothing. I'm sorry, but I just can't do that," he said coldly as he slipped a knife from his belt.

"Dad," she whispered, feeling more tears squeeze their way from her eyes. "What _happened_ to you?"

"My girl," her father said, voice heavy and eyes dark with the weight of his guilt, hatred, and sorrow. "My little girl…I'm dead. I _died_ the day you went into that machine. Now I'm just putting down the monster Robert Callaghan left behind," he finished, turning toward Krei with the knife held at the ready. The CEO began to scream in earnest, struggling futilely against the cuffs that held him.

"Don't do it, Callaghan," a new voice suddenly entered the conversation. Abigail shifted her head to look beyond the three men and into the semi-darkness of whatever chamber they were in. Three figures emerged dressed in some sort of armor. "Why do you keep trying when you _know_ it's over?" the shortest of the three asked.

Her father let out a long and bitter laugh at this, not looking at the three figures as he spoke. "Because this is all I have left. You wouldn't understand."

"You _can't do this._ Krei needs to stand trial. What if you're wrong? What if the person who's _really_ responsible goes free because of what you're doing?"

"That's impossible. All who were involved are dead now. All but him," her father said as he glared down at Krei. "You will not interfere. Yokai… _destroy them._ "

XxX

"Rosie…did you know about GoGo and I?"

"Why do you ask?" Suri returned absently as she continued to monitor Fred. Baymax had transferred his scans to her pad before they'd left, so she knew exactly what was wrong, but there wasn't much she could do without the proper equipment. The suit had kept the blow from killing him outright, but he'd suffered a fracture to the back of his skull and the resulting impact had caused a mild contusion in his brain. These injuries could heal on their own, though. The troubling part was the potential for an increase in intracranial pressure. Baymax had reported a slight increase, but without him here, she couldn't monitor how it might be progressing. All she could really do was keep him still until help arrived.

"Well…Wasabi said something, and I guess…I just wanted to know if we were as obvious as you and Tadashi were," she said, smiling weakly from where she was lying against a large chunk of broken concrete.

Suri laughed quietly as she moved back to the other blonde to check the bandages on her shoulder. She'd cleaned and closed the wound. In his attempt to penetrate above Honey Lemon's armor, Tadashi had actually avoided piercing her lung. The only internal damage was some muscle damage and a nick to her scapula where the microbot had exited. She was going to pull through just fine. Now it was just a matter of keeping the wound clean and keeping her calm.

"If Tadashi and I were as obvious as you and GoGo, I may just have to die of embarrassment."

"Heh…I guess we're all a little oblivious," the chemist said, her small laugh turning into a wince of pain.

"Hey, what did I tell you? Just keep still. You're going to be fine. Those days of being oblivious are over now."

"Right," Honey Lemon said, closing her eyes and taking several deep breaths. "They're coming back. Of _course_ they're coming back."

"Hey, what…what's going on?" Fred's disoriented voice suddenly broke into the conversation. "What happened?"

"Freddie!" Honey Lemon called out, immediately discouraged from moving by the pain in her shoulder.

"Don't move," Suri warned as she moved back over to him.

"Rosie?" he mumbled stupidly, eyes unfocused as she checked him over. "What happened?"

"You were severely injured in the fight with Tadashi. Heathcliff's on his way, but I need you to keep still until then. We don't want to risk further injury."

"Whoa," Fred continued to mumble, a slight grin moving across his face. "Not to…make light of a nasty situation or anything, but…that is severely _cool._

Suri shook her head in amusement as she continued her examination. "You _would_ find being beaten to within an inch of your life cool. What am I going to do with you?"

Before any of them could say anything more, though, the sounds of a helicopter came from overhead. The moment the chopper was on the ground, Heathcliff was getting out, moving quickly toward them.

"Are you sure we can't take them to a hospital?" Suri shouted over the noise of the copter. Sirens were also beginning to sound in the distance.

"That will not be necessary," the butler explained as he easily lifted Honey Lemon in his arms, being careful to keep her shoulder immobile. "Master Lee's medical facilities should be quite sufficient."

Once Heathcliff had gotten Honey Lemon secure on the chopper, he brought out a stretcher, which he and Suri secured Fred to in order to move him onto the copter. Suri was just about to climb in with them when Baymax suddenly landed next to the chopper.

"Suri," the robot called to her. "Hiro has requested that I bring you to Akuma Island. Can you come?"

When Suri looked to Heathcliff, he nodded. "Go. The others may need your help. I am capable of taking care of Frederick and Honey Lemon until you return."

"Right," she said, quickly moving toward Baymax while the copter took off. "What's wrong? Is anyone hurt?"

"No more than they already were, but Hiro believed you might be needed. Climb on my back and I will take you to them."

Suri hesitated only a moment before climbing on. Unlike Hiro, she couldn't harness herself to Baymax's armor and unlike the others, she had no armor at all. This was not going to be pleasant, but if she was needed, she was needed. There was no other choice.

"Please hold on tightly. You are not harnessed and a fall would most certainly prove fatal."

"Yeah, I got it. Just go. I'm ready," she said, holding as tightly as she could and snapping her eyes shut as Baymax took off.

Suri could feel the wind biting against her exposed skin as they shot through the sky. Not daring to look down, she just held on and prayed.

_I'm coming, you guys. Just hold on. You'd_ _**better** _ _not be dead._

XxX

Yokai knew he wasn't operating at full capacity, but he also knew that his opponents weren't either. When the man and the woman came at him to attack, he immediately went after the woman, taking several strategic jabs at the places he knew she was injured. She went down easily enough, but not before delivering a jab of her own to the wound she'd left in his shoulder. Yokai snarled in pain as he retreated, but still with a note of satisfaction when the woman did not rise. One target incapacitated. Coming back at her, he drew his katana to finish her.

_Something's wrong._

"Dammit," the man snapped, coming after him before he'd had a chance to finish the woman off. Yokai resisted the temptation to raise a weapon against the larger opponent, as he knew those plasma blades could decimate any weapon he could bring against him. Instead he led him in a circle around the destroyed portal chamber, keeping him distracted with small streams of the few microbots that remained to him.

"I don't wanna hurt you, Tadashi. Don't make me," the man warned him.

_Tadashi._

"Don't call me that!" Yokai snarled before he could stop himself.

"What? Tadashi? That's your _name_ , man! Don't you remember?!"

" _No!_ " he shouted in defiance before leaping and flipping over the man's head. Before his target realized what had happened, Yokai had spun about and jammed one of his daggers into the housing on the man's left arm, instantly shorting out the plasma blade. In nearly the same motion, he removed the blade and slashed it across the target's side, sending him to his knees with a cry of pain. It didn't take much for him to destroy the other plasma housing.

With the plasma blades neutralized, Yokai easily pinned the man to the wall with his small swarm of microbots.

"Get out of _this_ if you can," he challenged, sneering as he switched out the dagger for his katana.

_This isn't right._

"Tadashi, stop!" the boy suddenly ordered. When Yokai looked up from his intended victim, he saw the boy standing on top of a pile of twisted metal. "Leave them alone. I'm the one you want."

"Hiro, no! Don't-" the man started, but was soon interrupted when the small swarm covered his mouth.

"It's okay, Wasabi. It's okay," the boy, Hiro, said, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on Yokai.

_Hiro._

"Maybe you didn't hear me before, but my name is not Tadashi," he said as he began to circle the boy.

_No._

"Sorry to disappoint you, _Tadashi,_ but it _is_ your name. It's the only name you've got," Hiro said firmly, eyes following him as he moved. Without breaking that contact, he slowly removed his helmet, letting it drop to the floor.

"You're making this too easy, boy," he warned him.

"We'll see."

_Wait. Don't do this!_

Without further ado, Yokai sprang at his target, ready to run him through. Hiro was ready for him, though. Whenever Yokai moved to take a stab at him, he moved out of the way.

" _Coward!_ " he snarled after several minutes of this. "Fight back!"

"I'm not gonna fight you, Tadashi," Hiro said calmly. "You're my big brother."

"Then that's _your_ mistake!" he snapped. "I _will_ kill you."

_No,_ _**please!** _ _Please don't kill him!_

"I'm pretty sure you will," Hiro said, still strangely calm. When Yokai raised his sword for another blow, the boy suddenly leaped clear, then rolled away, climbing to his feet several yards away. "In fact, I'm afraid that might be the only way to bring you back."

"Then you're even crazier than I am," Yokai declared, turning wildly about in order to get his sights on the boy.

"Tadashi…if it's what you want…go ahead and run me through," Hiro invited, arms held wild in an open gesture. "I won't run. I won't try to stop you. If it's for you…if it's so you can live…I don't mind dying." He had a theory. If Tadashi had been snapped out of it when he'd been in mortal danger, then maybe – just maybe – there was a way to snap him out of it for good.

For a moment, Yokai just stood staring at his target, sword held at the ready, prepared to strike whenever he made the move to make it so.

But then that moment devolved into minutes and Yokai slowly began to laugh – and as he laughed, his eyes widened in horror and fear.

_What…what is this?_

And those minutes continued to tick away, reality slowly unraveling around him as he began to shake, laughs gradually turning into sobs as tears poured down his face.

_Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God!_

_**No! You can't lose it now! You have to complete the mission. It's what you are** _ _**for!** _

_No! It's Hiro! I can't kill him! I'd rather_ _**die** _ _than kill him!_

_**It's too late for that. You gave up that choice a long time ago. Kill him** _ _**now!**_ _ **Just** _ _**end it!** _

"Tadashi?"

"Don't look at me like that," he repeated without thought. Along with the voices in his own head, he could hear Hiro, Wasabi shouting, struggling to get free, GoGo trying to call out to Hiro, all reaching out, urging him not to die.

_**KILL HIM!** _

_NO! I'D RATHER BE DEAD!_

"Please," he begged quietly through the tears. "Someone _help me._ "

_**This isn't** _ _**real.** _

"Tadashi-"

_**He asked for death. Now give it to him.** _

"As you wish," Yokai hissed, eyes zeroing in on his target as his conditioning snapped back into place. Time almost seemed to move slower as he sprang across the distance to the boy.

A moment was all it took. Hiro didn't scream; he only gasped quietly. He didn't exactly feel pain as the cold steel pierced him. In fact, he felt a strange sort of detachment as the katana slid through his body. Upon piercing his suit, the blade first punctured his skin. Then it passed through the layers of fat and muscle beneath that. Next to be perforated was his liver, which the sword ran solidly through before exiting out his back, completely impaling him. He didn't know how long he just stared at the katana protruding from his body before slowly following it up to the face of its owner.

Brown eyes. His first memory was of brown eyes. But instead of warmth and love, in these eyes he saw only horror.

"T- Tadashi," he whispered, trying to reach up to touch his brother's face, but unable to bring his hand more than halfway up.

At first, Tadashi wasn't fully aware of what had happened. All he could see was Hiro's face, wincing slightly in pain, but then an easy smile spread across his face. Only when Hiro couldn't raise his hand did Tadashi look down and see the blade that had impaled him – the blade _he_ was still holding.

"Oh, God. Oh, God! _Oh, God!_ " he cried out. There was a katana in his baby brother's body. He needed to remove it.

"DON'T PULL THE SWORD OUT!" a new voice suddenly screamed. Too shocked to do much more than stand there, Tadashi didn't see Suri and Baymax running across the chamber. He just saw blood seeping out around the blade, slowly staining the floor red.

"Tadashi," Hiro whimpered, resting his thick-gloved hand on his. "It's all right."

"Hiro?" he whispered.

_**You** _ _did this. You're a_ _**monster!** _

" _NOOOO!_ " Tadashi shrieked in horror as he tore the sword from Hiro's body. Once he'd started screaming, he couldn't stop. He screamed for all the times he hadn't been able to since the night of the fire, screamed his pain and anguish and guilt to the world. He screamed until his throat was raw and he had no voice. He was barely aware of Suri lowering Hiro to the ground. In order to cope with the shock, his world narrowed to the feel of the hilt of the katana still in his hand.

Callaghan.

"Oh, that's unfortunate," the former professor said callously as they watched the events unfold. "You were probably counting on them for a rescue weren't you. Well, I've got news for you, Alistair. No one's going to save you this time," he snarled, seizing Krei's collar and lifting him up before slamming his head back against the pipe he was cuffed to. The man tried to talk, but nothing was getting through the gag except his pitiful screams.

"Dad…please don't-" Abigail tried to protest, but she was too weak to do much more than that.

"You can't imagine how long I've waited to see that look in your eyes," Callaghan said, taking a step back to take it all in. "Just pure, utter _terror._ I want you to know what Tomeo felt in his last moments…what Abigail must have felt when that portal failed. You're going to die in fear and agony. Then you'll go straight to Hell," he growled, drawing his dagger back for the final strike – but what happened next, even _he_ could not have foreseen.

His blade pierced flesh, then muscle and bone, but it wasn't Krei that he'd stabbed.

It was Abigail.

Waiting until the last possible moment, she'd gathered up all of her strength and thrown herself between him and her former employer. Abigail was now collapsed against the CEO with _his_ knife sticking out of her shoulder

"Abby," he breathed in shock.

_Oh, God._

"I couldn't- let you do it," she groaned before passing out cold.

Callaghan had no idea what he might have done at that point. Whatever the case, he needn't have worried about it. The next thing he became aware of was another blade – this one protruding from his chest, right where his heart used to beat up until five seconds ago.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Tadashi standing there, face pale and eyes wide, just on the verge of falling completely into madness.

" _You,_ " the incensed boy whispered, voice hoarse from shrieking. "You did this to me. You hurt Suri…and you tried to kill Hiro…and you used _my hands to do it!_ You _BASTARD!_ "

"Yes. Yes, I did," he said softly, having no more answer than that. "I'm sorry. I'm quite certain I will suffer for what I've done to you…but no suffering could be worse than what I've already endured. I'm sorry," he repeated. "Thank you."

When Callaghan fell from the end of his sword, unmistakably dead, Tadashi slowly collapsed to his knees. Then he raised the katana above his head, fully intending to follow his master and maker. He wasn't going to suffer this hell one moment longer.

However, as his gaze travelled along the silvery, blood-spattered length of the weapon that had killed so many, another hand wrapped around his – smaller, but with more strength and conviction than he could ever dream of.

"Don't you _dare_ hurt anyone else with that sword," GoGo hissed in his ear as she knelt beside him, forcing him to lower the weapon. "Including yourself."

Tadashi had no idea how long they knelt like that, but in the end he did release his grip on the katana. GoGo slowly pulled him into her arms and he buried his face in her chest and sobbed, sobbed for all the times he'd dared not ever since carrying his baby brother from their parents' burning car. He wept until he was completely empty, and then he slept, clinging to his best friend like she was the last solid thing in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *glancing side to side * So…that meet with anyone's expectations?


	10. Guard Dog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well…I have no excuse. I got tangled up in the Red vs Blue fandom, then the holidays were busy, and then there were family issues, all leading to the fact that I haven’t written much of anything since January, so I’m sorta just easing back into things. Not that I expect anyone’s still reading my lowly story, but if you do happen to still be out there, I sincerely hope you enjoy this long-awaited continuation. The first scene was particularly difficult to write and I did my best, but I'm also not a doctor of any kind, so for all I know, I've done it completely wrong, but at the very least, I hope it's satisfying.

Not knowing what she would see, Suri had locked herself into professional mode the moment she and Baymax had touched down on Akuma Island. She kept her head firmly on her shoulders as Baymax led her through the quarantined compound, toward the sounds of battle. They emerged in the portal chamber just in time to see Tadashi plunge his blade into Hiro's body.

"DON'T PULL THE SWORD OUT!" she screamed as she raced forward, immediately seeing the look of panic in Tadashi's eyes. She didn't allow herself time to feel any of it, though. She was needed. Her own feelings had no relevance.

When Tadashi defied her order and pulled the katana out, she immediately moved in to catch Hiro as he fell, lowering him slowly to the ground so he wouldn't further injure himself.

"H-hey…Rosie," the boy mumbled, clearly in pain.

"Don't talk," she ordered firmly as she began to strip the armor from his chest. When she got down to the fabric of his flight suit, she cut it open, exposing the badly bleeding wound. Already a disconcertingly large pool of the life-sustaining fluid was spreading around them. The detached, surgeon's portion of her mind was aware the wound was bleeding so heavily simply because the liver had been punctured, but it was still unnerving to see so much blood pouring from a friend. Quietly acknowledging that part of herself, she neatly severed it from her current line of thought and locked it away to be addressed later. Right now the doctor was needed, not the concerned friend.

"What are we looking at, Baymax?" she asked as she removed her lab coat, bunching it up and shoving it underneath Hiro to put at least some kind of pressure against the exit wound. The med bot could give her a complete catalogue of damage, but he was also programmed to defer to a surgeon if one was present.

"The liver has been completely perforated. There is not yet significant bleeding into the abdominal cavity and there is no other internal damage. Hypothermia, hypovolemic shock, and exsanguination will prove immediately fatal if left untreated. Suggested course of action would be to repair the damage to the liver while maintaining core temperature."

"Right," she said with a nod before beginning to pull the supplies she'd need from her kit. "I'm going to need you to hold him down."

"'m right here, y'know," Hiro grunted. "Don't have to talk about me like I'm not."

"Of the two of you, Baymax is the one who's _not_ going into shock, so his is the word we'll be taking," she explained as she prepped a shot of antibiotic, injecting it before he had a chance to say anything more. When Baymax moved to hold down his arms, Hiro started to struggle.

"What…what's…I don't-"

"Calm down. Calm down," she urged, keeping her voice level as she placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "I don't have time to give you an anesthetic. You'll bleed out long before anything in this kit takes effect. I need to operate _now._ Baymax is going to hold you down to prevent you moving too much while I work."

"Okay…okay," Hiro said, nodding faintly as he let the nurse bot pin his arms to the floor. While Suri straddled his legs to keep them pinned, Baymax activated his heat pads, keeping back the cold Hiro was already feeling.

"Don't fight passing out," Suri encouraged while wiping an antibacterial pad over the injury site. The location was far from ideal for performing surgery and the wipe was the best she could do under the circumstances. Grabbing a sterilized cloth from her kit, she jammed it between Hiro's teeth. "I want you to bite down on this if you have to."

Wasting no more words, Suri made a quick, clean incision across the stab wound, widening her point of access. All the while, Hiro screamed in agony, struggling involuntarily against the hold on his body, his voice only slightly muffled by the cloth.

Doing her best to ignore him, Suri cut down to the damaged liver. His hideous cries pierced her ears and she was aware she would hear them in her nightmares later, but her ability to block out unnecessary detail during an emergency was one of the things that made her such a brilliant trauma surgeon. Fighting against her patient's thrashing, she spread a clotting agent over the injury to prevent further bleeding while she worked. The stab wound was small, but the liver bled heavily, just the same.

She noted other panicked voices in the background while she did her work, but she tuned them out. Like her own feelings, their fear was not relevant right now. It would not save Hiro's life. The only voice she let herself hear was Baymax's, keeping her up to date on the younger Hamada's condition from moment to moment.

"Hiro has lost consciousness," the nurse bot reported to her as she stitched up the entry wound, even though she didn't need to hear it, the boy's lack of struggle by this point speaking for itself. "Core temperature is holding stable. Heart rate remains erratic at-"

"Right," Suri interrupted before he could give the exact number. She didn't need to hear it. If the core temperature was holding, they still had a shot at this. Climbing off of Hiro, she looked back up at Baymax. "On my count, I want you to move him onto his front. One, two, three, go," she ordered in a clipped tone.

Being both gentle and precise, the robot lifted Hiro and moved him onto his stomach. Once he was in position, both the bot and the surgeon resumed their positions, holding Hiro down incase he should regain consciousness before Suri had finished her work. Grabbing another antibacterial pad from her kit, Suri mechanically repeated the same process step for step on the exit wound, not letting up until she'd completely closed it up and bandaged both injury sites. When there was virtually nothing more she could do, she looked up at Baymax again.

"How'd we do?"

"Heart rate has returned to normal. Core temperature has remained stable. We were in time to prevent further bleeding into the abdominal cavity. For the moment, Hiro is stable," the nurse bot reported, and it took everything the young surgeon had not to look at the blood smeared along his vinyl exterior.

"So…he's gonna be all right?" Suri finally allowed herself to hear Wasabi's fearful question. Turning in the direction of his voice, she saw he'd crawled closer to them, the wound in his side still seeping trickles of blood.

"He's not dead," Suri said with a sigh. "That's the best I can give you right now."

"I have transmitted our location to Heathcliff," Baymax reported. "The others have injuries that need tending. Shall I assist with their care?"

"No," Suri said firmly, even though she could feel herself starting to shake slightly. "I can handle everything else. Right now I want you to keep Hiro warm."

"Acknowledged," the nurse bot said with a nod, keeping his position over Hiro.

"Thank you, Baymax," Suri said before gathering up her kit and moving over to Wasabi. "Just this then?" she asked as she knelt beside him, her fingers ghosting along the slash wound.

"Yeah," he answered with a wince.

"Should be an easy fix," she said as she set the kit back down and retrieved yet another antibacterial pad, taking a moment to clean her hands of Hiro's blood. "Need help getting the armor off or can you handle that yourself?"

"No. I can do it," he said before slowly beginning to strip the armor from his body, clearly in pain all the while. The poor guy obviously wasn't used to this kind of pain. Once he'd managed to remove the armor and role back the undershirt, Suri had gotten her hands clean and had actually taken a moment to put on gloves, having been in a little too much of a hurry before.

"It's not too deep," she explained once she'd examined the injury and had begun to clean it. "The bleeding's mostly stopped. I think we'll be fine with some skin glue and a bandage," she said, figuring Wasabi was the type who needed to be talked through each step. So as she worked, she talked him through everything she was doing in an effort to keep him calm, and all the while, the broad-shouldered man struggled not to whimper. Once he was all patched up, she gathered the kit yet again and moved on to the last group.

GoGo, Abigail, Krei, and Tadashi were all grouped together. Callaghan she knew to be dead with a single glance. Krei, whether from fear, shock, or some combination thereof, had thankfully passed out. Suri was just as content to leave the man where he was cuffed. When GoGo saw her looking between her and Abigail, she immediately nodded toward the other woman.

"I'm fine," the engineer grunted. "Help her."

Suri had a feeling that Abigail Callaghan would need a lot more evaluation after her ordeal, but that wasn't her top concern at the moment. Right now, all she wanted to concern herself with was the stab wound in Abigail's shoulder. The test pilot had already removed her flight suit from the injury site, knowing what needed to be done, even though she was still plainly dazed from everything that had happened. She didn't have anything to say when Suri explained what she needed to do, just nodded her consent. As such, it didn't take Suri long at all to get her patched up as well. With the pilot resting and immobile, Suri was finally able to move on to GoGo and Tadashi.

GoGo was sitting against a chunk of fallen debris with Tadashi resting against her, still mildly clinging to the shorter woman, even in sleep. GoGo looked strangely at peace with the world, holding her best friend as if he were a child who'd had a bad dream.

"How much do you think you can do without moving him?" she asked, making sure to keep a firm hold of the sleeping man. "I'm not sure what might happen if he wakes up."

"Assuming you've got nothing vital damaged in the torso area, I should be able to handle the full catalogue," Suri said, taking stock of each injury as she carefully removed the armor from the smaller woman's body. So far as she could divine, there was nothing life threatening, just a patchwork of stab and slash wounds where Tadashi's blade had gotten through her under suit. As she worked to treat each injury, she was careful not to disturb Tadashi in any way.

"Rosie…how's Honey?" GoGo asked her after a time, and Suri was at least relieved to be able to offer her current patient a comforting smile.

"All patched up and resting comfortably by now, I imagine…and with a few choice words for you when we get back. When I left her with Heathcliff, he was just about to fly her and Fred back to the Lee mansion. He's coming for us now. You'll see her when we get there," she reassured her.

"Good," GoGo said with a relieved sigh, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back to rest against the makeshift wall. Once Suri had managed to cobble the younger woman back together, she turned her attention down to the man sleeping in her arms.

Suri was gentle with all of her patients, but when she turned her hands toward putting Tadashi back together, she knew there was something more carried in them. There was a tenderness in her touch she knew no other patient would ever feel. Hiro had brought Tadashi back from the dead with his sacrifice. It would be up to her to help them both come back to life.

 _I couldn't do anything before, Tadashi…but we have a second chance now. I won't let_ _ **any**_ _of you go. Not this time,_ she vowed as she worked to close and bandage each wound.

Right up until Heathcliff entered the ruined chamber to help her and Baymax move everyone, the young surgeon worked, knowing that if she stopped, even for a minute, she would likely pass out, and she knew she couldn't afford to. This little band of unlikely heroes had done their job. Now they needed her to do hers.

Suri Avicenna had no intention of resting until she knew for certain that each member of Hiro's team was going to live.

XxX

" _Are you satisfied?"_

_Tadashi looks up to see Yokai standing over him. The demon sneers down at him, looking as if he's bathed in blood._

" _What…do you…"_

" _You got your name back. It only cost you everyone you ever loved."_

_Unbidden, images flash through his mind…Fred slammed against the concrete…Honey Lemon pierced by a microbot…Wasabi pinned by them…GoGo covered in slash wounds…Suri trapped beneath him…_

… _Hiro impaled on_ _ **his sword!**_

" _ **No!**_ _" he cries in horrified anguish, looking away, anywhere but at Yokai…at his own blood-stained hands._

_**What have I done?! Suri…the guys…Hiro! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!** _

" _I warned you," Yokai chastises him. The sneer is still in place as the demon kneels before him, but there's a strange sort of pity in his voice at the same time. "I_ _ **told**_ _you you didn't want to go down this road. I warned you. You should've just stayed asleep. Was this name of yours worth it…_ _ **Tadashi?**_ _"_

" _SHUT UP!" Tadashi snarls, struggling to pull away from Yokai, only to find himself pinned to the floor with the demon's fingers wrapped tightly around his throat._

" _Do you really think it's that easy to get away from me, Tadashi?" the specter hisses in his ear. "I'm no less part of you than your own beating heart._ _ **You**_ _created me, after all. Allowed Yokai to be born in order to protect this broken soul."_

" _No," Tadashi whispers, struggling futilely against the creature's hold on him. "I didn't want this. I never-"_

" _But you_ _ **did,**_ _" Yokai interrupts, tongue briefly flicking out to dart along the shell of his ear. "You see, it's not in you to let yourself die. It wasn't for Callaghan's lack of trying to destroy you. In the end, you were too strong to be conquered. You created_ _ **me**_ _so you'd survive…to bear what you couldn't, to do what you wouldn't…and we did survive, didn't we. The person who hurt you is dead."_

" _C…Callaghan," Tadashi chokes out, the memory of his former mentor's blood splashing onto his face burning itself into his brain._

_**Thank you.** _

" _Mm, yes. You did that…or was it me who stabbed our maker through the heart? You don't know, do you," he says with a chuckle. "Anymore than you know which of us it was who tried to rape Suri…or which of us_ _ **killed Hiro.**_ _"_

" _Oh, God," Tadashi cries out, not bothering to struggle anymore. There's no escaping it. "Oh,_ _ **God.**_ _"_

" _What will you do now, beloved Nii-chan?" Yokai taunts him. "What now that you no longer need me? What are you for? What is a big brother without a little brother? What is a tool without a master? What are you…_ _ **Tadashi Hamada?**_ _"_

"I-" he started to answer, only to realize that he _had_ no answer, and even if he had, there would've been no one to hear it. He found himself waking up in a hospital bed, bandaged and attached to an IV. He couldn't see it, but he could feel that there was some sort of neural sensor band attached to his forehead. He was just reaching up to try and remove it when the door to the room suddenly opened up, admitting Suri.

"S- Suri?" he called out hesitantly. His partner offered him a smile, but it was caught somewhere between hopeful and professional. For a moment, she didn't seem to know what to say, but then professionalism won out.

"I'm sorry if this seems harsh, but I need to know. Who am I talking to right now? Is it Tadashi…or Yokai?"

The young man returned her pained gaze for several moments before ultimately turning away, shrugging miserably as he sat up. "I don't know the answer to that question."

"Well…if you were Yokai, you would've said so. It's a step in the right direction. Do…do you know who _I_ am?" she asked, and whatever the expression on her face might've been, he could hear the pain in her voice. He knew she had to ask him this…because he'd fooled her before with the sound of her own name, and _that_ he remembered with sharp, painful clarity.

"Your name is Suri ibnat Hassan ibn Sina al-Rashid," he began, still not looking at her. "Your father was Hassan ibn Sina ibn Tariq al-Rashid. Your mother was Salima Rachel Davis. They met when they found themselves on opposite sides of the Raqi War. You were born in Raqana. When your parents brought you to the States, ibn Sina became Avicenna. That was the name I saw in my email when the med school recommended one of their students to work with me on the Baymax project. Suri Avicenna. I remember it was raining the day we met. I remember you coming into the coffee shop out of the rain and apologizing for looking like a drowned rat. Maybe you did, but I never noticed. I always thought you were beautiful. I know you…Suri," he said softly, finally turning to face her. Her professional expression was still in place, but it was marred by tear tracks. "And I know what I did to you."

Suri shook her head as she moved closer to him. "That…that wasn't you. You'd never…I know you, too…Tadashi. It's not your fault," she tried to reassure him, resting a hand on his knee.

"Maybe Tadashi wouldn't," he whispered around the lump in his throat, "but I don't know if I _am_ Tadashi. What- what sort of man kills his little brother?" he choked out, the simple sound of the katana piercing Hiro's body repeating over and over in his head.

"Tadashi," Suri started slowly, her grip on his knee becoming more firm, "Hiro isn't dead."

For a moment, it didn't sink in. Tadashi didn't see how he could've possibly heard such a thing. After all, he'd _seen_ it happen. He'd been there. But when he finally started to come to grips with it in his head, he looked up into Suri's eyes.

"Not…dead?" he repeated, hardly able to believe it. Without thinking, he reached a hand up to grip her shoulder.

"I was able to perform surgery in time. I managed to stop the bleeding. But Tadashi…he's still in bad shape."

"What do you mean?" he pressed, not really noticing the way his grip on her tightened.

"The facility on Akuma…it wasn't anywhere _close_ to ideal. An infection's set in. Hiro hasn't regained consciousness yet," she explained, her free hand moving up to cover his.

"Can…can I see him?" Tadashi made himself ask, half of him not sure he really wanted to.

"I don't think that's a good idea just yet," she said, the look in her eyes pitying but firm.

"Why not?" he demanded, something angry beginning to snarl in his chest.

"We're still very touch go right now. Except for my regular checks and Baymax, I'm keeping him in isolation. Until I know for certain one way or the other, I'd rather not risk that the infection become worse."

"Suri, _please._ I _have_ to see him. You've _got_ to let me see him," he argued, moving to grip both her shoulders in desperate hands.

"I can't do that, Tadashi," she said, her expression completely unyielding. "We're so close now. I know what it would do to you…to lose him. I'm not going to take that risk."

" _You don't understand!_ " he shouted at her, fingers digging into her shoulders. " _I_ did this. I have to tell him I'm sorry!"

"Do you honestly believe he'd blame you for any of this?" she asked, remaining infuriatingly calm in the face of his anger. "Hiro made a choice…no different from what you would have done for him."

"Suri, I swear, if you don't let me see him-"

"You'll what, Tadashi? _Kill_ me?" she challenged, and almost before he'd realized it, his hands were around her throat, squeezing. The woman was an obstacle. She was in his way. He should _remove_ her.

"If I must," he hissed in a barely recognizable voice.

"Callaghan said…we couldn't help you," his victim choked out, fighting the lack of air in her lungs. "Was he right? Are you…anything more than a weapon? I bet…my life…you're still in there…Tadashi," she rasped, expression still very much in control, even though her fingers were beginning to involuntarily claw at his wrists. "If I'm wrong…you'd better kill me now."

He might have. He well and truly might have strangled her or broken her neck had he not suddenly glanced down and seen the bandage peaking out from beneath her shirt – from where he'd hurt her before…when he'd tried to-

_Suri!_

" _Oh, God!_ " he cried out in horror, immediately releasing his hold on her. Suri dropped to the floor like a stone, coughing violently as air rushed back into her lungs. He had no idea why he hadn't noticed it before, but there suddenly seemed to be shouting and banging coming from the other side of the closed door.

"I…Suri, I…almost…couldn't control it," he choked out, hardly able to breathe himself. He couldn't make himself look down at her. Again! _Again!_ He'd hurt her again! Instead of retreating from him in fear, though, she reached up to him, resting a gentle hand on top of his.

"They didn't want me to come in here," she admitted quietly, hand verging on clinging to his. "They thought Baymax should come. Baymax…he's wonderful, but I thought you would need a person. I sealed the door behind me…because I didn't want to risk them trying to interfere."

"You…knew this would happen?" he asked, feeling horrified guilt twist his stomach in ugly knots. Really, what more could he have expected? He was a monster.

"I wasn't _sure_ what would happen, but I think you can understand why I can't let you see Hiro yet…when we don't know what might set you off," she explained as she slowly climbed to her feet.

"I…understand," he murmured after several moments. "I just…what am I supposed to do?"

"What do you mean?" Suri asked him, reaching forward to touch the new scar on his cheek – the one _she'd_ given him.

"I didn't…I was…Tadashi…but Callaghan erased that…only…I'm _still here,_ " he hissed in anguish, feeling his eyes burn as he clutched at the thin sheets. "I wasn't…supposed to be here anymore. Tadashi was supposed to die so Yokai could do what he couldn't. I can't…I can never…Suri, what… _what am I?_ " he finally managed to choke out, the words tumbling from his mouth as broken sobs.

Suri said nothing. She just enfolded him in her arms and held him against her chest, letting him soak her breasts as the tears came, wave after wave. She had no answers for him, but she also asked nothing of him. She simply held him, running her fingers soothingly through his short hair and down over the hideous burn scars on his back, never once flinching away from their ugliness. She let him cry until he couldn't cry anymore, and even then she just continued to hold him. Whether it was enough, neither of them knew, but it would have to do for now.

XxX

The moment Suri left the room, she was collapsing against the closed door, shaking and gasping for breath. She'd been prepared for how Tadashi might react, so she'd been better able to handle herself than the first time, but that didn't mean the experience had been any less harrowing.

"Dammit, Rosie! Why the _fuck_ did you lock us out?" GoGo demanded, clearly resisting the urge to smack the young surgeon upside the head.

"That could've been awful," Honey Lemon put in.

"Would it…have gone any better…if you'd all come barging in?" Suri asked between haggard breaths. "The commotion might've driven him completely over the edge. This was better."

"Rosie…he could have _killed_ you," Wasabi said, voice unusually calm as he sat down beside her.

"Well…that was a risk I was willing to take," she said, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back against the door. "It's better than risking him around Hiro."

"You really believe that? You think it wouldn't hurt him just as badly if he had to learn he killed you during a fit?" Cass asked from the opposite side of the hallway. "You matter to him, too, Suri. You can't be an idiot about this."

"No. I know that. I mean…I guess I'm just the only one with the authority to make the call outside of an actual psyche ward. Not that the Lee facilities aren't spectacular," she began to ramble. Fred was still under after his own surgery, so she'd have to ask Heathcliff why exactly the Lee mansion had its own onsite medical wing.

"Seriously, Rosie, why couldn't we have just had Baymax go in?" GoGo interrupted before she could become completely nonsensical.

"Honestly? Apart from wanting him to have some proper human contact…I don't want to take Baymax away from Hiro right now," she explained, only just managing to get her shaking under control as she re-immersed herself in surgeon mode. "He's set to let me know if anything changes."

"So…shouldn't you be getting some rest, then?" Honey Lemon couldn't seem to help pointing out. "You've performed two major surgeries in the last twenty-four hours with no sleep. Is you keeling over from exhaustion really going to help anyone?"

"No," Suri mumbled as she struggled back to her feet, shaking herself off, "but I know my own limits, and you can trust me when I say I'm nowhere near them. If I promise to sleep for a week once this is all over, will you all get off my case about it?"

"Grudgingly," GoGo conceded, looking at Suri through narrowed eyes. "We _will_ hold you to that, though."

"Point taken," Suri said with a nod.

" _Are_ we going to let him see Hiro if… _when_ …he wakes up?" Honey Lemon asked as the young surgeon started to move away from them – down the hall to check on Hiro.

"Of course," Suri said absently as she reached a hand up to touch the finger-shaped bruises that were already starting to form on her neck. "If it…really comes down to it…Baymax should be able to deal with any mishaps."

_Dammit, Hiro. You'd better not die on me now. You've put us all through the wringer as it is. I hope you know that if you die…Tadashi won't survive either._

Hiro didn't seem to have heard her, though, for no sooner had the thought moved through her brain than she received a call from Baymax on her phone.

"Suri, your assistance is required. There is an emergency."

XxX

_At first, Hiro doesn't know where he is. He finds himself working at a computer terminal, but everything else is white. There's a schematic streaming across the holo screen, but he can't read it._

" _What…what's going on?" he mumbles, fighting to try and look around, but failing to pull his eyes away from the screen._

" _That's up to you, Hiro," an unfamiliar voice drifts into his awareness. At least…he_ _ **thinks**_ _it's unfamiliar. He's pretty sure he's never heard it before…but there's still just…something about it._

" _Up to me?"_

" _That's right," the voice continues. It's soothing, but at the same time, he feels a small bolt of fear shiver down his spine. "You did well. You've done amazing things. More than that, you've accomplished what you set out to do. If you want…you've definitely earned the right to rest."_

" _Rest…what…?" Hiro tries to ask, finally managing to tear his gaze away from the screen. When he looks back, he finds a familiar room beginning to emerge from the whiteness. It's Tadashi's lab at SFIT – as it was before Yokai got to it…the place where his life had changed in so many different ways. And standing in the doorway is-_

_-it's not Tadashi. He sees Tadashi in this man, but it's not his brother. He knows this because even though he's never seen the man before, he_ _**does** _ _recognize his face. It stares back at him daily from a couple dozen pictures Aunt Cass keeps hanging around their home._

" _Dad?" he asks uncertainly._

" _Hey, Hiro," his father says, looking at him with a fond smile on his face. "It's good to see you."_

_Hiro shakes his head. "This- this isn't real," he stutters, wanting to move further back but already stopped by the terminal. "You're dead. Tadashi saw you die. You and Mom both. You can't be here."_

_Tomeo Hamada raises an eyebrow at him. He doesn't say anything, just waits for Hiro to connect the dots for himself – and he eventually does._

" _Oh," he mumbles, pain briefly flashing in his mind as he remembers the sudden and precise stab of the katana…the cold feel of it sliding through his body. He reaches a hand down to the place where he'd been impaled, but there's no wound there…no blood…not the slightest sign he's ever been injured. "That's right."_

" _You gave up your life to save your brother," his father says, moving a few steps closer._

" _I…I'm…am I dead?" Hiro finally made himself ask._

" _Well…as I said before, that's up to you. This place…it's a space between. It's why I can talk to you like this. You're not quite dead…but you_ _ **are**_ _dying," his father explains to him, pointing to the window. When Hiro follows the indicated direction, instead of looking outside, he finds himself looking down into a hospital room. He sees himself lying in the bed, skin ashen and completely unmoving. Rosie and Baymax are moving around him, tending machines and supplying various drugs. He can see Rosie becoming more frantic by the moment._

" _And I'm gonna go ahead and chalk this up as the freakiest thing I've ever seen," he mutters, more to himself than to his father. "What about Tadashi? Is he all right?"_

" _He's alive, if that's what you mean. I wouldn't go directly to all right. That will take time, but you saved him. You didn't give up on him. That's what counts."_

_Hiro sighs as he looks away from his own death, up to his father. "God, Dad. I'm sorry, but what did you ever see in Robert Callaghan?"_

_Tomeo Hamada gives a bitter laugh at this. "Hiro, I saw in Bob the same thing you saw the night you first met him – a good man, a friend who shared my interests. But anyone can be pushed past their breaking point. Losing his friends…losing his family…it changed him. He saw things I hope you'll_ _**never** _ _have to see, let alone understand. I just want you to know that the man you knew was not my friend. The man_ _**I** _ _knew…he died…a long time ago. If I had known…if I had only known then what it would all lead to…I never would've put those designs to paper. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I wasn't there to protect you boys. Tadashi's done the job I was meant to do for so many years…but he did well, he and Cassie both," his father says, offering him a tired smile as he lays a hand on his shoulder. "You're a good man, Hiro. Much better than I ever was."_

" _Well, thanks for that," Hiro says with a self-deprecating chuckle, turning back to the window when he hears the sound of his own heart monitor flat lining. He feels a faint electrical surge when Baymax applies his defibrillator hands to his chest._

"Clear," the nurse bot warned in the same easy voice he always spoke in before attempting another jolt.

"Dammit, kid, don't quit on me now," Rosie muttered as she monitored Baymax's progress with an anxious glare.

" _It's weird," Hiro says quietly as he watches them struggle to save him. "I should probably be more scared. I mean…I'm watching myself_ _ **die**_ _…but I just…I feel calm right now," he tries to explain._

" _You were ready to die when you made the decision to face Tadashi one last time. This was an outcome you'd accepted, even if you didn't know exactly what might happen."_

" _Maybe it is time to go," Hiro muses, attention held captive by Baymax and Rosie's failing attempts. "I've seen so many awful things in the past week alone. I_ _ **do**_ _want to rest. They don't…really need me anymore. Tadashi's got Rosie now. She'll take care of him. Maybe they can have the life they should've had."_

" _It_ _ **is**_ _true that your brother would be in good hands. If it's what you want, you can come with me now. Your mother's waiting. You've definitely earned the right to be at peace," his father says._

" _But…?" Hiro continues for him, sensing the caveat in his words._

" _But what do you think it will do to Tadashi…to live knowing he was the one who put the sword through you?" Tomeo asks him with a stern look._

" _Dad, that wasn't-"_

" _Do you really believe_ _ **he'll**_ _see it that way? Will it matter to him who was in control of his actions at the time?"_

"Hiro… _no!_ " Rosie cried out, pounding a fist against the pillow next to his head as tears began to pour down her face. Baymax had already backed off. "Wake up… _wake up!_ You can't do this!"

" _How?" Hiro finally asks his dad. "_ _ **How**_ _do I get back?"_

_Tomeo laughs at this, wiping an amused tear from his eye. "Oh, Hiro, if I knew how to do that, would I be here now? If you want to go back, you'll have to do it yourself. Of course, if you don't think you can do it, you're welcome to follow me," he points out._

_And that's what does it. Something_ _**he** _ _can't do? He's Hiro fucking Hamada. There's_ _**nothing** _ _he can't do, even coming back from the dead. And when he realizes just what his father's pulled on him, he smirks, but there's also a little sadness behind it._

" _Thanks, Dad," he says, moving forward to hug him. Tomeo holds him tightly against his chest, as if pressing the memory into his heart._

" _We love you, Hiro," he whispers to him, "and we're both so very proud of you. You and Tadashi had better not show your faces around here for a long time," he scolds him as he backs away._

" _No promises," Hiro snarks. "After all, I am just a dumb knucklehead."_

" _That you are," his dad says, holding up his fist for a bump. "Don't ever change."_

_Hiro grins as he bumps the offered fist. "You can count on that one, old man. I'll see you when I see you."_

_Tomeo Hamada just nods as the door to the lab slides open, and in the whiteness beyond there's an indistinct figure. When his dad takes the figure's hand, its features become distinctly more feminine, and for a moment, Hiro could almost swear he sees Aunt Cass's smile._

" _Mom?" he whispers, but that's all there's time for, as the lab suddenly goes up in white around him._

XxX

The first thing Hiro became aware of upon blinking his eyes open was just how dry his throat was. Instead of words, he produced more of a croak when he tried to speak.

"Hey, you," a familiar voice said to him, though that familiar voice was strangely gentle. Hiro looked to the side of the room to see Aunt Cass sitting in a chair by his bed. When he tried to respond, all he managed was another croaking sound. His aunt laughed at the noise, sounding a little more like herself. "Feeling up to some water?"

Nodding, Hiro tried to sit up, but Aunt Cass stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Not yet, knucklehead. Let me take care of this," she said, reaching for a cup that sat on the stand beside the bed. Being careful to keep the cup upright, she offered him the straw sticking out of it. He rolled his eyes at her before gripping the straw between his lips and taking several grateful swallows of water. When he released the straw, he let his head rest back on the incredibly soft pillow.

"Y'know, I'm not a baby, Aunt Cass," he said when he was finally able to speak again.

"No, but you are an idiot who just about got yourself killed," she pointed out. "So if it's all the same to you, I'll go ahead and do all the silly little mothering things."

"It wasn't…for nothing…was it?" he asked slowly, remembering exactly _why_ he was in a hospital bed. "How's Tadashi?"

"He's alive," Aunt Cass responded as she stroked his hair.

"And he- he's not…"

"Not Yokai anymore, no," she said, and he could tell there was more she wanted to say, but he wasn't really feeling up to pressing her for whatever that more was.

"What about the rest of the guys?" he asked instead. "What happened on the island?"

"That you can ask them yourself," she said with a tired smile. Then she nodded toward the door, which spilled open to reveal his brother's four best friends – _his_ best friends. Each one of them definitely looked a little worse for wear. GoGo was heavily bandaged in several areas and he could see Wasabi favoring his right side as he moved. Honey Lemon's left arm was set in a sling, her shoulder bandaged and held immobile. Of the whole group, Fred looked the most different. His head had been shaved and there was a large bandage covering the lower right side of his head.

"Guys," Hiro called out in relief as they all came to the bed, gathering around the two with smiles on their faces.

"Hey, Hiro," they all chimed together.

"Good to see you awake again," Wasabi said.

"For a while there, we…we really weren't sure," GoGo put in. "You just about left us there."

"Not for lack of trying," Hiro said quietly, remembering scant images of a smirk that matched his own. "But somebody reminded me I'm just a little too stubborn to die. Though…Fred, what- what happened to your hair?"

"Oh, this? It's nothing. Rosie needed to get rid of it so she could get inside my head and drain off some kinda fluid buildup. Shouldn't take too long to grow back. We're all good, little man. You're the one we were worried about."

"And…Akuma…what happened with Callaghan?" Hiro asked.

For a long moment, they all fell silent. GoGo was the one to finally speak up with, "He's dead. Tadashi killed him."

Hiro squeezed his eyes tightly shut at this, swallowing in pain. It wasn't so much the fact that Robert Callaghan was dead that unnerved him, more that there was yet one more death that would be laid on his brother's soul. He would've rather it'd been his own, but there was nothing he could do about it now. "Guess I can't blame him for that one. What about…Abigail? How's she taking all this?"

"She's recovering in her own room," Honey Lemon began to explain. "She tried to stop her father from killing Krei and she was hurt. We're not…really sure how much she knows about what's happening. She hasn't spoken a word since it happened."

"And Krei?" Hiro continued. "What happened to him?"

At this, Fred began to laugh. "Oh, man. It was _epic!_ GoGo and Wasabi hog tied him and left his corporate ass with the cops. Damn, but I wish we could've been there for that."

"Cops?" Hiro asked, looking around at all of them. "But…what can they get him for? I thought-"

"Even if there isn't enough evidence to pin him with murder, corporate espionage is still a very major offence," Wasabi explained. "No doubt he's gonna be going to jail."

"Huh," Hiro started with a shrug. "Just like that." It didn't seem possible that it could really be over just like that, but there were still things he didn't know. "How…how's Tadashi holding up?"

For several moments, his friends and aunt looked at each other in uncertainty. Honey Lemon was the one to step in this time.

"It's been three days since Akuma, Hiro. Tadashi's only had one episode since then, but…he tried to kill Rosie. She managed to talk him down, but there's no telling what could set him off. He's been kept under lockdown."

"But you _are_ going to let me see him…right?" Hiro pressed, glaring briefly at all of them.

"Rosie and Baymax went to get him when you first started stirring," Aunt Cass finally answered.

"So 'yes' would be the answer to your question," Rosie's voice came from the doorway. The group parted ranks so Hiro could the young surgeon standing there. When she entered the room and stood to the side, Hiro could plainly see his brother, with Baymax standing just behind and beside him, a steadying hand on his shoulder.

"Tadashi," Hiro whispered, feeling something burn behind his eyes. He saw his big brother stiffen at the name, but he didn't care. Even though he'd never acknowledge it, he'd been waiting for this moment ever since he'd been blown off his feet by the explosion that had first taken his sibling from him. Ever since learning Tadashi was alive, he hadn't really let himself feel the joy of that. He'd been so preoccupied with everything else – with saving him – and now here he was.

"Hiro?" his brother started uncertainly as he moved into the room, looking like he half wanted to run the other direction.

"Yeah. Still my name, bro," he tried to joke, even though he could feel the tears attempting to squeeze out of his eyes.

"Please exercise caution," Baymax advised when the elder Hamada finally reached the hospital bed. "Hiro is still recuperating from a major surgery and is in a fragile state right now."

For several moments, Tadashi just stood beside the bed, looking torn.

"Do…do you hate me?" his formerly confident elder brother made himself ask, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy.

"No, I don't hate you, nerd," Hiro answered around the lump in his throat as the tears finally began to fall. "Are you gonna hug me or do I have to do all the work?"

Tadashi seemed to need no more invitation than that. Though he still looked afraid, he moved forward and very gently pulled Hiro into a hug. Navigating around the I.V. he was still attached to, Hiro wrapped his own arms around his brother, burying his face in his chest as the waterworks started in earnest.

"Nii-chan!" he sobbed as he clung to him. "You don't know how fucking happy I am you're not dead."

"Hiro," Tadashi mumbled into his hair, his own tears beginning to wet the black strands. "I'm _so sorry._ _I_ did this to you."

"That's the _last time_ you get to blame yourself for this, man. I don't wanna hear it," Hiro snarled. "You didn't do anything. It wasn't you."

"Should've…left me to die," Tadashi choked out, his grip on Hiro tightening to a slightly uncomfortable degree.

"It's okay. We're okay," Hiro soothed, just talking his unbalanced brother down, like Rosie had done. "You never gave up on me…not once. Why the _hell_ would I give up on you? I'll _never_ give up on you, Nii-chan. Not ever. I love you."

Hiro knew he'd have to let go of his brother eventually, knew he probably wasn't going to be awake for much longer even, but that didn't matter to him just then. He didn't even care that said brother might be an inch from falling into a murderous rage. All that mattered to him was that he was hugging Tadashi – something he thought he'd never be able to do again. For as long as he lived, he knew he'd remember this moment, and he'd never believe that anything was impossible ever again, no matter how crazy it might seem. He'd fought so hard to have this moment and against all the odds, he'd gotten his brother back, and he was going to help Tadashi come all the way back to himself, even if it took years.

He was not giving up.


End file.
